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单词 conscience
释义

consciencen.

Brit. /ˈkɒnʃns/, U.S. /ˈkɑnʃəns/
Forms:

α. Middle English conciense, Middle English consciencis, Middle English consciense, Middle English conscyons, Middle English consienns, Middle English consiens, Middle English 1600s consions, Middle English–1500s conciens, Middle English–1500s concyens, Middle English–1500s conscians, Middle English–1500s conscyens, Middle English–1500s consyence, Middle English–1500s consyens, Middle English–1600s concience, Middle English–1600s consciens, Middle English–1600s conscyence, Middle English–1600s consience, Middle English– conscience, 1500s conchons, 1500s concions, 1500s conshens, 1500s consyenes, 1500s coyngsance, 1500s sconscyence, 1500s–1600s concyence, 1600s concyence, 1600s conscients, 1600s conseince, 1600s consianice, 1600s contience, 1600s contyence, 1800s coshes (Irish English (Wexford)); Scottish pre-1700 conciens, pre-1700 conscenc, pre-1700 conschiance, pre-1700 conschience, pre-1700 consciens, pre-1700 conscince, pre-1700 conscyence, pre-1700 conscyens, pre-1700 consiance, pre-1700 consience, pre-1700 quonciens, pre-1700 1700s– conscience, 1800s concience.

β. 1500s conscyon, 1800s conchion (South African).

Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French conscience; Latin conscientia.
Etymology: < (i) Anglo-Norman conciense, consciense, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French, French conscience, Anglo-Norman and Middle French consience, Old French consiense, conciance, Middle French concience internal faculty which judges what is good and what is bad (c1165), a person's inner feelings, thoughts, and desires (12th cent.), scruple (c1370), fairness, equity (14th cent.), a person's awareness of his or her own mood and actions (1762), a curved metal plate attached to a drill which the operator rests on his chest (1842 or earlier), and its etymon (ii) classical Latin conscientia holding of knowledge in common, fact of being privy to a crime, complicity, private knowledge, consciousness, moral sense, consciousness of right and wrong, good conscience, guilty conscience, in post-classical Latin also point of conscience, scruple (from c1250 in British sources) < conscient- , consciēns , present participle of conscīre (with sibi ) to have (a crime) on one's conscience (Horace), in post-classical Latin also to know well (late 2nd or early 3rd cent. in Tertullian; < con- con- prefix + scīre to know: see science n.) + -ia -ia suffix1, after ancient Greek συνειδέναι to know, to be privy to (see syneidesis n.). Compare ancient Greek συνείδησις consciousness, conscience, Hellenistic Greek συνειδός complicity, consciousness, conscience. Compare Old Occitan conciencia, consciencia, cossiencia, cossiensa (13th cent.), Catalan consciència (a1300), Spanish conciencia (a1250 or earlier), Portuguese consciência (13th cent.), Italian coscienza (a1292).In Middle English conscience was used in all the major senses of the older term inwit n., which it seems to have superseded. In the Middle English and early modern periods, this word was frequently written with final -s and sometimes, especially in such spellings, apprehended as a plural, perhaps partly by association with other plural nouns denoting a single mental faculty, such as wits , brains , etc. Compare e.g.:1537 in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1890) 5 552 Item, whether your consciens were suche as therby ye were induced to grudge against them.1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. xxix For who seeth not how pitifully mens consciens are vexed with his lawes and decrees?Examples of an inferred singular without the final sibillant are also occasionally found from the first half of the 16th cent. (compare β. forms), and probably lie behind the derivatives conscioned adj., conscionable adj., and conscionless adj., although here association with nouns in -ion suffix1 may be an additional contributory factor. In the phrase for conscience sake at Phrases 2 meanwhile, the unmarked genitive probably arose for reasons of euphony, for conscience's sake resulting in a cluster of three sibillants (compare similarly e.g. for goodness' sake at goodness n. Phrases 1a), although it may subsequently have been understood as the genitive (in 's ) of a form of the β. type. Both α. forms and β. forms in -ion- probably reflect association with formations in -ion suffix1. With sense 11 perhaps compare Middle French conscience, recorded as the name of a container in an apparently isolated attestation in 1527, although a different type of vessel (a small silver pot with a lid) seems to be intended.
I. Senses involving consciousness of morality or what is considered right.
1.
a. The internal acknowledgement or recognition of the moral quality of one's motives and actions; the sense of right and wrong as regards things for which one is responsible; the faculty or principle which judges the moral quality of one's actions or motives. Now also in weakened sense: one's awareness of what is advisable or acceptable for one to do.Opinions as to the nature, function, and authority of conscience are widely divergent, including that it is: (i) practical reasoning about moral matters, which, though fallible, must be obeyed (Aquinas); (ii) the understanding which distinguishes between right and wrong and between virtue and vice; (iii) an infallible, God-given guide of conduct; (iv) a sense of personal or individual morality as opposed to customary or social morality (Hegel); (v) a sense of guilt and unworthiness which arises when aggressive impulses are denied external expression (Nietzsche); (vi) an aspect of the superego, the internal perception of the rejection of a particular wish (Freud). See also note in etymology. N.E.D. included at this sense:
1603 W. Shakespeare Hamlet iii. i. 85 O this conscience makes cowardes of vs all.
However, the interpretation of conscience here has been disputed. Many later scholars regard it as meaning rather ‘introspection, consciousness, the capacity to think’, which would associate the quotation with branch II.See also case of conscience n. at case n.1 Phrases 7, Council of Conscience at council n. 9, court of conscience at court n.1 Phrases b, to examine one's conscience at examine v. 2, freedom of conscience n. at freedom n. Phrases b, liberty of conscience n. at liberty n.1 Phrases 2c, master conscience n. at master n.1 and adj. Compounds 2b, a pinch of conscience at pinch n. 7a, prick of conscience at prick n. 17a, prisoner of (also †for) conscience n. at prisoner n.2 Phrases 4, remorse of conscience at remorse n. 1, remurmuration of conscience n. at remurmuration n., scruple of conscience at scruple n.2 1a.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > [noun] > moral sense > conscience
hearta1225
conscience?c1225
inwitc1230
pursec1275
the bird in one's (also the) bosom1548
?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 226 Inwið us seoluen vre achne conscience. þet is ure þonc for cweðinde hire seoluen wið þe fur of sunne.
c1390 (c1300) MS Vernon Homilies in Archiv f. das Studium der Neueren Sprachen (1877) 57 243 And my concience gon [me] melde: Hit schewed þere ful openlich Þat I ladde my lyf wrongwysliche.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 26747 Qua will noght..wit scrift þair conscience ma clene.
a1425 (a1400) Prick of Conscience (Galba & Harl.) (1863) l. 6574 (MED) Þe tend payne es gnawyng with-in Of conscience þat bites als vermyn.
a1425 (?a1400) G. Chaucer Romaunt Rose (Hunterian) (1891) l. 6450 That prest may neuer..knowe the conscience a right Of hym that is vndir his cure.
1477 Earl Rivers tr. Dictes or Sayengis Philosophhres (Caxton) (1877) lf. 1 Whiche grace..droof me by reson & conscience.
1581 J. Marbeck Bk. Notes & Common Places 248 The conscience verilie is the knowledge, iudgement, & reason of a man, whereby euerie man in himselfe, and in his owne minde, being made priuie to euerie thing, yt he either hath committed or not committed, doe either condemne or acquite himself.
1600 W. Shakespeare Merchant of Venice ii. ii. 1 My conscience will serue me to runne from this Iewe my Maister. View more context for this quotation
a1602 W. Perkins Cases of Consc. in Wks. (1603) 619 I say that conscience is a part of the mind or understanding, to show that conscience is not a bare knowledge or judgement of the understanding (as men commonly write), but a natural power, faculty, or created quality, from which knowledge and judgement proceed as effects.
1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan xxix A man's conscience and his judgment is the same thing, and, as the judgment, so also the conscience may be erroneous.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost iii. 195 And I will place within them as a guide My Umpire Conscience . View more context for this quotation
1695 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding (new ed.) i. iii. 18 Conscience..is nothing else, but our own Opinion of our own Actions.
1725 Bp. J. Butler Serm. ii This faculty of conscience..was placed within to be our proper governor; to direct and regulate all under principles, passions, and motives of action. This is its right and office: thus sacred its authority.
1735 Visct. Bolingbroke Diss. upon Parties (ed. 2) 8 Conscience alone determines their Conduct.
1771 London Mag. July 344/2 Conscience is our supreme faculty, to which all the rest must act in subordination.
1823 Ld. Byron Island i. vi. 12 Man's conscience is the oracle of God.
a1858 J. Goldswain Chron. (1946) iii. 48 Mr Kay did not ancer me but my hone conchion condemed me for what I had said.
1872 E. Peacock Mabel Heron ii. 17 With several twinges of conscience.
1882 J. H. Blunt Reformation Church of Eng. II. 30 The conscience of the country turned against him.
1884 T. Fowler Progr. Morality 29 In any tenable sense of the term, conscience stands simply for the aggregate of our moral opinion re-inforced by the moral sanction of self-approbation and self-disapprobation.
a1939 C. Darrow in S. T. Joshi Closing Arguments (2005) ii. 138 If I should undertake to eat with a knife now, my conscience would bother me; but it used to be all right.
1955 G. Gorer Exploring Eng. Char. xi. 169 The conscience (the conscious portion of the super-ego) would appear to be largely formed by the incorporation of some aspects of the dominant figure or figures of authority in childhood.
2008 H. M. Schulweis Conscience 5 Conscience is a wisdom whose origin and practice are as puzzling as they are precious.
b. As a count noun.
ΚΠ
?c1400 (c1380) G. Chaucer tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (BL Add. 10340) (1868) iv. pr. vi. l. 4078 Þe whiche vices al to renden her consciences.
?a1425 tr. Catherine of Siena Orcherd of Syon (Harl.) (1966) 404 Þei kepen clene her consciencis fro deedli synne.
1483 Catholicon Anglicum (BL Add. 89074) (1881) 75 A Consciens, consciencia.
1526 W. Tyndale Prol. Epist. Rom. sig. bviiiv He teacheth to deale soberly with the consciences of the weke in the fayth, wich yet vnderstond not the liberte of christ perfectly ynough.
1549 Bk. Common Prayer (STC 16267) Firste Daie of Lente f. xxxiiii* They (whose consciences by synne are accused).
a1616 W. Shakespeare Tempest (1623) ii. i. 283 I feele not This Deity in my bosome: 'Twentie consciences That stand 'twixt me, and Millaine, candied be they, And melt ere they mollest. View more context for this quotation
a1689 W. Cleland Coll. Poems (1697) 107 Some thought he look'd like those that spent Betwixt a Conscience and Church Rent.
1748 S. Richardson Clarissa VII. xc. 331 A conscience, that is upon the struggle with thee, and like a cunning wrestler watches its opportunity to give thee another fall.
1777 W. Dalrymple Trav. Spain & Portugal xi. 112 The Bishop, supreme empiric, heals the minds and cures the consciences..by the same prescription.
1811 Belfast Monthly Mag. Apr. 282/1 It is related of the late Dr. Paley, that he jocularly said of himself, that ‘he was not rich enough to afford to keep a conscience’.
a1853 F. W. Robertson Serm. (1857) 3rd Ser. xii. 166 We come into this world with a moral sense; or, to speak more Christianly, with a conscience.
1879 Pop. Sci. Monthly Mar. 648 A conscience to justify the popular notions of its origins and authority ought to be infallible, and must be universal.
1900 Daily Chron. 4 June 3/5 I don't happen to have such a thing as a conscience.
1914 J. Joyce Dubliners 28 The confused puffy face of Leo Dillon awakened one of my consciences.
1978 J. Updike Coup vii. 269 Is it not the essence of a conscience, that it be invisible and ignorable?
2006 N.Y. Times Mag. 21 May 20/3 When the rubber of ideals meets the road of financial reality, I wonder if their consciences will manage to accommodate contraception.
†c. (my) conscience!: expressing surprise or disbelief. Cf. Phrases 1. Scottish. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > surprise, unexpectedness > [noun] > cause of surprise > expression of surprise
what1597
whoa ho1622
my conscience!1817
suffering cat!1869
1817 W. Scott Rob Roy II. x. 203 ‘Ah!—Eh!—Oh!’ exclaimed the Baillie. ‘My Conscience!—it's impossible—and yet—no! Conscience, it canna be!’
d. With the and of or genitive. A person, institution, etc., considered to embody or represent the moral and ethical values of a specified wider community.
ΚΠ
1837 T. Carlyle French Revol. III. i. i. 12 Marat..is the conscience of the ‘Hôtel-de-Ville’.
1861 N. Brit. Rev. Feb. 199 Fulfilling thus..the real office of the Press: that, namely, of being the nation's conscience.
1912 J. O. Fagan Autobiogr. of Individualist v. 152 He looks at everything through honest eyes. In a variety of little and big ways, at work and in the community, he is the conscience of the gang.
1934 N.Y. Times 14 Mar. 16/7 In Puerto Rico at this moment she is the conscience of the American people, after all these years of indifference in which things were going from bad to worse.
1971 Social Service Rev. 45 277/2 In recent years it has become fashionable to speak of social work as the conscience of the community or the conscience of the institution.
2000 J. Stokes in J. Ashby & A. Higson Brit. Cinema, Past & Present viii. 133 Askey is thus the BBC's conscience and its carnival fool: he draws attention to the ludicrous nature of the Corporation's power.
2. With modifying adjective.
a. good conscience: a generally or legally agreed sense of what is right or just.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > jurisprudence > [noun] > theories or doctrines of the law > specific concept in English law
good consciencec1384
rule of lawa1538
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) 1 Tim. i. 19 Hauynge feith and good conscience [L. bonam conscientiam].
1428 in J. Raine Vol. Eng. Misc. N. Counties Eng. (1890) 10 I pray you..yat yhe will deme yis matier after gude conscience.
1443 in E. M. Carus-Wilson Overseas Trade Bristol in Later Middle Ages (1937) 78 (MED) Þat þe seid Richard May..be restored to his losses, costes, and damages..as right reson and goode conscience requiren.
a1500 (a1457) in C. Monro Lett. Margaret of Anjou (1863) 151 Oon Henry Chevele..ayenst al right lawe and good conscience, holdeth a certein place and lande in the towne of Asshedon.
a1601 W. Lambarde Archion (1635) 20 Not onely according to meere Right, and Law, but also after Equity and good Conscience.
1614 W. Browne Shepheards Pipe i. sig. C5 If against good conscience and right, Any good han ye take more or lesse, Beforne this houre, of any manner wight, Yeeld it anon.
1662 Tryal Sir H. Vane 18 Relying then, upon the Judgment and Reason of the whole Realm, declared by their Representative Body in Parliament, then sitting, and adhering thereto, and pursuing thereof,..is most agreeable to right Reason and good Conscience.
1707 Act 6 Anne c. 53 in Statutes of Realm (1821) VIII. 788 Reason or good Conscience in Bar or Discharge of any Fines Issues Amerciaments forfeited Recognizances or any other Forfeitures Debts or Duties due or payable to the Crown.
1768 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. III. 451 When all are heard, the court pronounces the decree, adjusting every point in debate according to equity and good conscience.
1808 E. B. Sugden Pract. Treat. Powers vii. 326 The substantial ground upon which equity maintains almost an exclusive jurisdiction in cases of fraud is, that it is enabled to mould and cut down the fraudulent instrument according to good conscience.
1858 Ld. St. Leonards Handy Bk. Prop. Law ii. 3 There are settled and inviolable rules of equity, which require to be moderated by the rules of good conscience.
1893 Pacific Reporter 32 1071 We know of no reason why the members of a community as a whole or separately should not be bound by the same rules of good conscience as those not occupying such a relation.
1918 Rep. Supreme Court S. Carolina 108 532 The human heart demands that justice be administered in accordance with equity, good conscience, sound reason, and divine morality.
1941 E. H. Warren in Spartan Educ. (1942) vi. 92 I now see clearly that, whether C or D wins, the result is not against good conscience,—is not an inequitable result.
2002 L. Smith in D. Johnston & R. Zimmermann Unjustified Enrichment xi. xxi. 611 When the first chancellors enforced the first uses against legal title-holders, the suggestion that they were contradicting the common law would have appalled them. They were merely requiring those people to behave according to good conscience ( and telling them what good conscience required).
b. With clear, guilty, etc.: a conscience of the specified kind or in the specified state.See also nonconformist conscience n. at nonconformist n. and adj. Compounds, Puritan conscience n. at puritan n. and adj. Compounds, with (a) safe conscience at safe adj. Phrases 2, social conscience n. at social adj. and n. Compounds 2.
ΚΠ
a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) v. l. 1847 (MED) He hidde his yhen fro the sihte, And wende wel that he so mihte Excuse his false conscience.
1440 J. Capgrave Life St. Norbert (1977) l. 1216 Þe reulis of clene consciense.
c1450 (c1350) Alexander & Dindimus (Bodl.) (1929) l. 989 (MED) For oure kinde consience þat kenneþ us to goode, We..wende fro skaþe.
?a1475 (a1396) W. Hilton Scale of Perfection (Harl. 6579) i. lxxvii. f. 54 In a pees of a glad conscience wiþ a sad ristfulnesse.
a1535 T. More Hist. Richard III in Wks. (1557) 58/1 Such as had wit..& had no scrupilouse consience.
1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde iii. ii. f. 96 His giltie conscience..put him in feare.
1578 T. Proctor Gorgious Gallery sig. Jii A Conscience pure..That..Of slaunders lothsome reketh not.
1599 R. Linche Fountaine Anc. Fiction sig. Bivv Princes and Magistrates ought to be..immaculate from all corruptible vice, carrying in themselue a christalline and clear conscience.
1625 N. Brent tr. P. Sarpi Free Schoole of Warre 4 It is cleere amongst..Professors of Cases of Conscience, That the errour..which..is called an erronious Conscience, is ligatorie.
1670 A. Marvell Let. 10 Mar. in Poems & Lett. (1971) II. 101 Under pretense of tender consciences.
1684 J. Sharp Disc. Conscience I. 7 If..we..talk of..a Tender Conscience or a Seared Conscience or the like.
1702 L. Echard Gen. Eccl. Hist. i. iv. 81 Herod's guilty Conscience, notwithstanding his Sadducaical Principles, made him..suspect that it was John himself risen from the Dead.
1746 B. Franklin Poor Richard Almanack 1747 July A quiet Conscience sleeps in Thunder, but Rest and Guilt live far asunder.
1792 V. Knox Serm. viii. 186 The unprevaricating dictates of a clear conscience.
1823 C. Lamb Artific. Comedy in Elia 325 I am glad for a season to take an airing beyond the diocese of the strict conscience.
1837 M. Shelley Falkner 14 The realities that produce felicity–for on earth there are such, though they are too often linked with adjuncts that make the purchase of them cost in the end peace of mind and a pure conscience.
1872 Scribner's Monthly Nov. 120/2 The poor fellow has the double misfortune of a light purse and a slim conscience.
1915 E. Baring Abbas II v. 72 Nevertheless, when he was able to help the course of natural justice without straining his very sensitive Islamic conscience, he was quite willing to do so.
1942 L. D. Rich We took to Woods iv. 105 I can, with a clear conscience—or fairly clear, anyhow—ignore a lot of persnickety details.
2005 R. Haight Christian Community in Hist. II. i. ii. 132 Church polity and ordinance did not bind Christian conscience.
c. good conscience: (a) a consciousness of acting or having acted rightly, or of being virtuous; †(b) a conscience which makes correct judgements (obsolete). Similarly by contrast bad (also evil, ill) conscience.See also to make shipwreck of a good conscience at shipwreck n. Phrases c(a).
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > virtue > righteousness or rectitude > [noun] > consciousness of rectitude
good conscience?c1430
?c1430 (c1400) J. Wyclif Eng. Wks. (1880) 228 (MED) Cristene men schullen haue so good conscience..þat enemys of oure feiþ þat bakbiten or myspeken of vs ben confounded.
a1500 (c1340) R. Rolle Psalter (Univ. Oxf. 64) (1884) lxxxviii. §13. 321 Thabor..and hermon..in þi name ihesu sall glade thorgh goed consyence.
1524 Will of William Burwell (P.R.O.: PROB. 11/21) f. 143 Persones of right or of good conscience.
1573 G. Harvey Let.-bk. (1884) 9 I wil do as men of best consciences do.
1611 M. Smith in Bible (King James) Transl. Pref. 6 This seemeth to argue a bad cause, or a bad conscience, or both.
1625 C. Burges New Discouery Personal Tithes 24 A good conscience..will sooner suspect his owne heart of couetousnesse, then his Pastors.
1631 T. Powell Tom of All Trades 161 There is no coward to an ill conscience.
1649 Bp. J. Hall Resol. & Decisions i. ii. 24 A good conscience therefore will tell you that if..you have made a prey of him..you are bound to make restitution.
a1665 W. Guthrie Heads of Serm. preached at Finnick (1680) ii. i. 44 Hells terror shall seize upon him,..the worm of an ill conscience rugging at his heart, and intrals of him.
1703 L. Smith Evid. Things not Seen (ed. 2) 14 For to say that these guilty Fears and Accusations of a bad Conscience, or comfortable Excusings and Acquitments of a good one,..owe their rise to custom of Belief and the prepossessions of Education,..is a precarious Assertion.
1744 J. Harris Three Treat. iii. ii. 200 What is that Comfort of a Good Conscience?
1750 T. Palmer Serious Addr. Unbaptized Christians 72 Their hearts are..Rantized or Sprinkled from an evil conscience by the blood of Christ.
1770 Oxf. Mag. Sept. 92/2 It was thus that Brutus's evil mind created his evil genius: the workings of an ill conscience was the spectre in his mind.
a1820 J. Lathrop Sermons (1821) New Ser. xviii. 179 To enquire into the causes and springs of an erroneous and evil conscience.
a1847 N. W. Fiske in D. D. Humphrey Memoir (1850) 190 Is he sure, that he did it with a good conscience? Perhaps it was with a very bad conscience, with an utterly dark and perverted conscience.
1886 R. L. Stevenson Strange Case Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (2003) 88 Ah, it's an ill conscience that's such an enemy to rest!
1922 G. S. Fullerton Handbk. Ethical Theory viii. xxxii. 312 It is as much a duty to have a good conscience as it is to obey the conscience one has.
1963 M. L. King Strength to Love xvi. 131 You cannot in good conscience sell your birthright of freedom for a mess of segregated pottage.
2003 G. Walker Crime, Gender & Social Order in Early Mod. Eng. iv. 127 Whether born of compassion, ill-conscience or duty, the impact of such actions was uncertain, as Cholmondley was aware.
3. Practice of, or conformity to, what is considered right or just, equity; regard to the dictates of conscience.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > duty or obligation > recognition of duty > [noun] > conscientiousness
consciencea1393
conscionableness1603
conscientiousnessa1631
society > morality > rightness or justice > [noun] > fairness or equity
evennessOE
rightOE
equityc1315
evenheadc1350
charityc1430
evenhood1496
consciencea1538
equalness1548
equality1556
equanimity1607
candour1616
equitableness1648
candidness1661
just1667
both-sidedness1845
a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) i. l. 595 An ypocrite is this, A man which feigneth conscience.
a1538 T. Starkey Dial. Pole & Lupset (1989) 81 Bycause hyt leynyth to equyte & consyence..I wyl..graunt thys to you.
1556 J. Heywood Spider & Flie lxxxvi. sig. Lliii Ye (with conscience) can rightfullie: Either kill me, or kepe me here thus to lie.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Othello (1622) iii. iii. 207 Their best conscience, Is not to leaue vndone, but keepe vnknowne.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Winter's Tale (1623) iv. iv. 647 I cannot with conscience take it. View more context for this quotation
1638 in Hamilton Papers (1880) 53 I ame sure in them itt proceeds not out of conseince, bot meirlie..[they] durst not for feare irritat the Couenanters.
1767 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. (new ed.) II. 328 A..had the legal..possession of the land, but B..was in conscience and equity to have the profits and disposal of it.
1772 H. Mackenzie Man of World i. xv Some folks, to be sure, would take more, but I love conscience in these matters.
1830 Encycl. Americana IV. 562/1 It will restrain any undue exercise of a legal right, against conscience and equity.
1871 A. C. Swinburne in Fortn. Rev. July 46 They both impress us with a belief..in the care and conscience with which their scenes were wrought out.
1920 N. M. Butler Is Amer. Worth Saving? x. 166 It calls upon the individual to serve his fellow man willingly and out of conscience and good judgement.
1990 HSUS News Summer 9/1 We talk about the importance of eating with conscience..and how to ‘shop green’ in order to sustain a humane life-style.
2005 J. Gray Mastery's End 95 I do not think Damon could with conscience argue that the teenage girls from Boston are radically questioning selfhood and authority.
4. Moral stance with regard to a particular personal act, especially a wrong one; sense of guilt, remorse. Also: scruple; compunction. Also as a count noun.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > virtue > righteousness or rectitude > reform, amendment, or correction > repentance or contrition > [noun]
reusingeOE
rueeOE
ruenessOE
bireusingc1000
penitencea1200
rutha1200
after-charc1220
again-charc1220
ruesomenessa1225
ofthinkingc1225
forthinkinga1250
repentancec1300
penancea1325
pityc1330
compunctiona1340
agenbite1340
repentingc1350
athinking1382
contritionc1386
repentaillec1390
rueinga1400
remorse of conscience (also mind)c1410
conscience?a1425
remorsea1425
penitencya1500
penitudea1538
resipiscency?c1550
penancy?1567
resipiscence1570
repent1573
brokennessa1617
remorsefulnessa1617
synteresy1616
synderesis1639
heart-searching1647
synteresis1650
remordency1658
contriteness1692
resentment1705
penitentness1727
?a1425 (c1400) Mandeville's Trav. (Titus C.xvi) (1919) 164 Þei han gret conscience & holden it for a gret synne to casten a knyf in the fuyre.
1467 J. Paston in Paston Lett. & Papers (2004) I. 534 Master Brakley owt for to be in gret consyens for syche thyngys as he had doone and seyd..in prouyng of Syr John Fastolfys wyll.
c1475 (?c1451) Bk. Noblesse (Royal) (1860) 34 King Lowes, haveng grete conscience that he heelde bethout title of right the duchie of Normandie.
1523 Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart Cronycles I. ccclxxxi. 641 But the bysshop had conscience to let hym dye.
1579 G. Fenton tr. F. Guicciardini Hist. Guicciardin v. 259 That had no conscience to euict the iust owner out of the whole.
1597 W. Shakespeare Richard II vi. v. 41 I hate the murtherer, loue him murthered: The guilt of conscience take thou for thy labor, But neither my good word, nor Princely fauour.
1608 Dispute Question of Kneeling 102 You haue so misused these things..that we can no longer continue them, without great conscience.
a1677 T. Manton 190 Serm. on 119th Psalm (1681) xxxi. 195 As soon as any begin to be serious, they begin to have a conscience about the finding out this one only true way wherein they may be saved.
1834 J. Foster Ess. Evils Pop. Ignorance (ed. 3) v. 265 Material wrong, very material wrong, to their fellow mortals, they have a conscience that they should not do.
1849 F. W. Newman On Constit. & Moral Right or Wrong of our Nat. Debt 15 During the reigns of William III. and George I., ministers repaid enough to show that they really had a conscience about it.
1876 H. B. Stowe Betty's Bright Idea 102 I always have had conscience about offering wine to some young men that I knew ought to keep clear of it.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. xiv. [Oxen of the Sun] 371 In the beginning they said the woman should bring forth in pain and wherefore they that were of this imagination affirmed how young Madden had said truth for he had conscience to let her die.
1936 M. Mitchell Gone with the Wind iii. xvii. 293 After Uncle Peter had wrung his neck, Aunt Pitty had been beset by conscience at the thought of enjoying him, en famille, when so many of her friends had not tasted chicken for weeks.
1978 C. Heath Lady on Burning Deck 210 I have a conscience about keeping dentists waiting.
2009 M. Ward Because he Could viii. 41 He has no conscience that Lena left Dale after he got involved with her and that Dale is pretty devastated too.
5. With of, †to. Conscientious observance, reverence, regard. Now rare. N.E.D. included quot. c13841 at sense 7b here.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > agreement > observance > [noun]
i-kepyngec1230
heed1357
keepingc1380
observancea1393
observation?a1425
contemplation1440
observing1458
conscience1483
conservation1544
heedfulness1561
heediness1596
religion1597
observancy1609
punctualness1620
punctuality1622
heeding1678
adherence1715
society > morality > duty or obligation > recognition of duty > [noun] > conscientiousness > meticulous
conscience1483
scrupleness1489
scruple1526
scrupulosity1526
queasiness1576
punctualness1620
punctuality1622
scrupulousness1689
overscrupulousness1740
superstition1755
overscrupulosity1829
over-scruple1894
society > morality > duty or obligation > recognition of duty > [noun] > conscientiousness > conscientious observance of or regard to
conscience1483
reluctancy1666
in R. Horrox & P. W. Hammond Brit. Libr. Harleian MS 433 (1982) III. 136 Any Article..whiche by reason or consyence [1627 consions] of righte owe or shuld be reformed.
1591 S. Cottesford Treat. against Traitors Ep. Ded. sig. ¶4 Those also who pretend conscience of religion before others.
1606 G. W. tr. Justinus Hist. 113 b Preferring the concience of their oath [L. sacramenti religionem] made to his father, before their latter promise.
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 756 If they haue any conscience of publique good.
1654 R. Whitlock Ζωοτομία A v They..(in meer Conscience to publike Benefit) have depriv'd themselves of so great a Propriety.
1671 H. M. tr. Erasmus Colloquies 102 It's a wicked thing, for the conscience of the day, to suffer our brother to perish.
1774 T. Hunter Moral Disc. on Providence II. xviii. 456 A conscience of duty engaged him in a long and laborious course of study.
1832 B. Sarrans Mem. Gen. Lafayette II. v. 147 My conscience of public order is now perfectly satisfied.
1894 S. Baring-Gould Queen of Love xviii. 122 Was there any law, any conscience of duty in the heart of this child?
1996 V. Shaw Social Control in China iv. xvi. 208 They may intentionally slow down the work or show no enthusiasm for it. Such reaction may die down by itself when the pain of discipline wanes and the conscience of duty builds up.
†6. A matter of conscience; something about which scruples are or should be felt. Also: a duty. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > [noun] > moral sense > conscience > a matter of conscience
conscience1557
1557 T. North tr. A. de Guevara Diall Princes f. 83v/2 To kepe two wiues among the christians, is a great conscience.
1557 T. North tr. A. de Guevara Diall Princes f. 174/1 To a prince there can be no greater shame, nor conscience, then to beginne warres..to mainteine his owne pleasure.
1574 E. Hellowes tr. A. de Guevara Familiar Epist. 58 Wee haue neuer heard, nor seene, the towne of Founterabie possessed by any king of France, neyther any king of Castile to haue giuen it them: In such wise, that it is a conscience for them to hold it, and a shame for vs not to take it.
1620 J. Taylor Jack a Lent (new ed.) sig. C3 I hold it a conscience to abstaine from flesh-eating in Lent.
II. Senses without a moral dimension.
7.
a. Inward knowledge or consciousness of something within or relating to oneself; internal conviction, personal awareness. Also with of.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > [noun] > state of awareness
consciencec1384
knowledgea1398
sensibility?c1425
knowingness1611
cognizance1635
conusance1635
cognoscence1647
vaticination1678
consciousness1753
awareness1839
clairvoyance1861
perceivingness1872
the mind > mental capacity > consciousness > self-consciousness > [noun] > internal knowledge or conviction
consciencec1384
consciousness1605
conscientiousness1640
self-consciousness1655
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Heb. x. 2 The worschipers clensid oonys, hadden no conscience [L. conscientiam] of synne ferthermore.
c1400 (?c1380) Pearl l. 1088 For I dar say, with conciens sure..His lyf wer loste an-vnder mone.
1509 H. Watson tr. S. Brant Shyppe of Fooles (de Worde) xxii. sig. F.iv (heading) Of conscyon [Fr. concione] of sapyence.
1533 T. More Let. to T. Cromwell in Wks. (1577) II. 1424/2 For the conscience of mine own true faithful hart and deuocion toward him.
1561 T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. ii. f. 78 Discouraged and throwen down with conscience of his own miserie.
1633 Bp. J. Hall Plaine Explic. Hard Texts i. 227 A good man shall..enjoy the conscience of his owne integrity.
1651 T. Hobbes Philos. Rudim. xvi. §1. 262 Mankind, from conscience of its own weaknesse.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost viii. 502 Her vertue and the conscience of her worth. View more context for this quotation
1711 R. Steele Spectator No. 153. ⁋2 The Conscience of a good Fame.
1719 D. Defoe Life Robinson Crusoe 103 Without Desire of Good, or Conscience of Evil.
1744 J. Swift On Testimony Consc. in Three Serm. 22 The Word Conscience properly signifies that Knowledge which a Man hath within himself of his own Thoughts and Actions.
1744 J. Harris Three Treat. iii. ii. 200 A Conscience of having done nothing, but what is consonant to our Duty.
1869 A. C. Swinburne in Fortn. Rev. May 560 The conscience of this sharpens and exasperates the temper of his will.
1889 Macmillan's Mag. Aug. 678/2 As for Antiope, the conscience of her perfidy remained with her.
1907 J. Conrad Secret Agent xii. 401 She had no conscience of how little she had audibly said in the disjointed phrases completed only in her thought.
1953 J. H. Moynihan Life Archbishop John Ireland viii. 171 Not only had he the conscience of having worked prudently and well, but he stood well with the American public.
1994 G. Lease ‘Odd Fellows’ in Politics of Relig. 278 The whole Prussian tradition had been based on the acceptance of conscience as a ruling guide for political action, a conscience of having been given an office by God.
b. Esp. in biblical translation and commentary: knowledge or consciousness of something external to oneself, esp. God. [The Textus Receptus (see textus n. 2), which ultimately underlies quot. c13842 (and from which the King James version of the New Testament was translated), reads συνείδησις ‘conscience’ twice in 1 Corinthians 8:7, with resulting problems of interpretation. Modern biblical scholarship (from the 19th cent. onwards), reflected in recent English translations of the Bible such as the Revised Standard Version and New Revised Standard Version, reads συνήθεια ‘custom’ on the first occasion, which makes much better sense.]
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > [noun] > state of awareness > of particular things
consciencec1384
sense1555
self-perception1666
sense of direction1836
aliveness1870
self-awareness1876
autoscopy1903
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Royal) (1850) 1 Pet. ii. 19 Forsothe this is grace, if for conscience of God [L. Dei conscientiam] ony man suffrith sorewes.
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) 1 Cor. viii. 7 Sothli summe with conscience [L. conscientia] of ydol til now eten as thing offrid to ydols [Great, Geneva some hauing conscience because of the idol; King James with conscience of the idole; R.V. some, being used until now to the idol].
c1450 J. Capgrave Life St. Augustine (1910) 7 (MED) What defautes þat be in þis age, of whech our maystir had ful grete consciens, is writin in þe same book.
1528 W. Tyndale That Fayth Mother of All Good Workes 92 Without conscience of God, and without knowledge of the true intent of fasting.
a1677 T. Manton 190 Serm. on 119th Psalm (1681) (66) lxxv. 459 Many of the Commandments are crossing to our natural Inclinations and corrupt Humours, or contrary to our Interests in the World, our Profit, Pleasure, and nothing will hold the heart to our Duty but the Conscience of God's Authority; this is the Lord's Will, then the gracious Soul submitteth.
a1684 R. Leighton Pract. Comm. 1st Epist. Peter (1693) I. (ii. 18) 218 'Tis suppos'd here, that this conscience of God, the saving knowledge and fear of his name, is to be found in Servants.
1874 Evangelical Repository June 264 The one having no ‘conscience’ of the Pope as an authority, gratifies himself, and strengthens himself for the discharges of his duty, by eating of the steak... The other having a ‘conscience of the idol’ as an authoritative legislator, would violate that conscience, and thereby sin, did he presume to take a mouthful of the forbidden luxury.
1875 G. M. Straffen Sin, as set forth in Holy Script. v. 66 God continued to man a natural conscience; though, man being what he was, it was mainly a conscience of sins. Yet it was also a conscience of God, and of God's claims, a conscience of eternal law and of unalterable obligations.
1981 D. Moody Word of Truth (1990) v. xxxix. 247 As ‘conscience of God’ means ‘consciousness of God’, so ‘conscience of sin’ means ‘consciousness of sin’.
1999 S. H. Rooy in G. H. Anderson Biogr. Dict. Christian Missions (new ed.) 111/1 Calvin's concept of general revelation and ‘seeds of religion’ in every person (also ‘rays of light’, ‘sparks of divinity’, ‘natural conscience of God’, and the ‘gifts of the Spirit’) provides a basis for dialogue with people of other faiths.
c. With of. Knowledge, understanding, insight.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > [noun]
i-witnessc888
knowledging?c1225
wittinga1300
beknowing1340
sciencec1350
bekenningc1380
knowinga1398
knowledgea1398
meaninga1398
cunningshipa1400
feela1400
understanda1400
cognizancec1400
kenningc1400
witc1400
recognizancec1436
cognition1447
recognitionc1450
cognoscencec1540
conscience1570
comprehension1597
comprehense1604
cognizant1634
sciency1642
scibility1677
1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) II. 1606/1 Hys iudgement in Religion..[was] grounded..vpon no firme conscience of doctrine.
1827 Let. addressed to Retired Gent. on Spirit New Ministry 43 Until we have some better authority than the Russian state papers, and the German gazettes, for the natural death of the late emperor, persons who have any conscience of passing events may be permitted their doubts.
1854 Littell's Living Age 2 Jan. 47/2 Like the song-Titan, Homer, blind, And with no conscience of the future growth, He sings of Troy the Past. Yet Troy the New Comes on the echo.
2007 Search Continues iii. 301 At that time my angel had no conscience of what would have happened if I had stayed, now she realizes that staying put was the best thing to do.
8. A person's inmost thought or feelings; a person's mind or heart. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > spirituality > mind, soul, spirit, heart > [noun]
wombeOE
moodeOE
heartOE
inner manc1000
soulOE
ghostOE
sprite1340
inwit1382
consciencec1384
spiritc1384
minda1387
spirtc1415
esperite1477
inward man1526
pneuma1559
esprite1591
internala1594
interior1600
entelechy1603
inside1615
psyche1648
sprit1653
citta1853
undersoul1868
Geist1871
heart-mind1959
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) 2 Cor. v. 11 Sothly I hope, and in ȝoure consciencis [L. in conscientiis vestris] vs for to be knowun [a1425 L.V. that we ben opyn also in ȝoure consciencis].
c1400 (?c1390) Sir Gawain & Green Knight (1940) l. 1196 Þe lede lay..Compast in his concience to quat þat cace myȝt Meue oþer amount.
a1438 Bk. Margery Kempe (1940) i. 6 (MED) Sche had a thyng in conscyens whech sche had neuyr schewyd be-forn þat tyme in alle hyr lyfe.
a1500 Lancelot of Laik (1870) 1465 If yow has maad Thi confessione..And in thi conciens thinkith perseuere.
1529 T. Wolsey in W. B. Scoones Four Cent. Eng. Lett. 10 Ye knowe in your lernyng and consyens.
c1540 Pilgrim's Tale 198 in F. Thynne Animaduersions (1875) App. i. 82 Dessyring him to swow [sic] me what he thought, In his consciens whan he had sought.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Cymbeline (1623) i. vi. 117 'Tis your Graces That from my mutest Conscience, to my tongue, Charmes this report out. View more context for this quotation
1691 Case of Exeter-Coll. 5 The Rector and Fellows were convinced in their Consciences of Mr. Colmer's guilt.
1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 126. ¶2 We do in our Consciences believe two and two make four.
1725 B. Higgons Hist. & Crit. Remarks Burnet's Hist. 3 Positive Assertions of several things which he must have known in his Conscience to be untrue.
1847 M. F. Tupper Proverb. Philos. 55 O beauty, conqueror of all: The outline of our shadowy best, the pure and comely creature, That winneth on the conscience with a saddening admiration.
1867 Sunday Mag. 1 July 691/2 Persons who, witnessing a work of the Holy Ghost, and being convinced, in their inmost conscience, that it is a work of the Holy Ghost.
1912 Ulster Covenant in Standard 20 Sept. 8/4 Being convinced in our conscience that Home Rule would be..subversive to our civil and religious freedom.
†9. Tenderness of feeling, tender-heartedness. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > love > tenderness > [noun]
softnessa1200
softheadc1350
tendresse1390
consciencea1393
tendernessa1400
suavitude1512
soft-heartedness1571
tender-heartedness1607
meltingness1622
tenerity1623
tender1671
tendre1673
mild-heartedness1849
a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) vii. l. 3230 Pompeie sih his pacience And tok pite with conscience.
c1405 (c1387–95) G. Chaucer Canterbury Tales Prol. (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 150 Al was conscience and tendre herte.
c1430 (c1386) G. Chaucer Legend Good Women (Cambr. Gg.4.27) (1879) l. 1255 O sely wemen..Fful of pite of trouthe of concience.
1655 F. Osborne Advice to Son ii. 44 They have cast themselves out of meere pity & conscience into the precipice of Marriage.
†10. Reasonableness, soundness of judgement, sense. Cf. in (also †of) (all) conscience at Phrases 3. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > reason, faculty of reasoning > common sense > [noun]
witc1175
sensea1382
conscience1449
mother witc1475
common wit1517
common sense1536
philosophy1557
good sense?1562
sconce1567
mother-sense1603
ingenuity1651
bonsense1681
rumgumption1686
nous1706
gumption?1719
rummlegumption1751
savvy1785
horse sense1832
kokum1848
sabe1872
common1899
marbles1902
gump1920
loaf1925
1449–50 Rolls of Parl.: Henry VI (Electronic ed.) Parl. Nov. 1449 §53. m. 12 The seide yiftes and grauntes were made of grete consciens and reason, and grete avise and deliberation.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Timon of Athens (1623) ii. ii. 172 Why dost thou weepe, canst thou the conscience lacke, To thinke I shall lacke friends. View more context for this quotation
†III. Applied to objects.
11. = bellarmine n. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > drink > containers for drink > drinking vessel > [noun] > large
beaker1348
facer1527
wassailing bowl1555
wassail-cup1600
wassail-bowl1606
consciencea1643
bellarmine1720
breakfast-cup1762
longbeard1850
a1643 W. Cartwright Ordinary (1651) iii. v. 52 Like a larger Jug, that some men call A Bellarmine, but we a Conscience.
12. Mechanics. = breastplate n. 3d. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > piercing or boring tools > [noun] > drill > breast-drills > part of
breastplate1678
conscience1856
palette1875
1856 M. L. Booth tr. Marble-workers' Man. 239 Palette or conscience.—A kind of drill plate, composed of an iron plate perforated with several holes, in which the head of the drill is placed, and which is rested upon the breast of the workman.
1874 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. I. 611/2 Conscience, a plate resting against the drill-head and enabling the pressure of the breast or hand to be brought upon the drill. A palette.

Phrases

P1. In protestations of truthfulness and asseverations. on (also upon, by, †in, †of) one's conscience: by one's sense of right, upon one's word, truly, honestly. Cf. sense 1c. Now chiefly Irish English and historical.
ΚΠ
c1300 St. Thomas Becket (Laud) l. 470 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 120 Ich hadde lothz, bi mi concience, don holi churche wovȝ.
a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) iv. l. 3174 Bot upon youre conscience, Min holi fader, demeth ye.
c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. v. l. 335 (MED) Þei couth nouȝte, bi her conscience, acorden in treuthe.
1533 J. Heywood Play of Wether sig. A iiiiv On my fayth I thynke in my conscyens I haue ben from heuyn as farre as heuen is hens.
1563 W. Fulke Goodle Gallerye Causes Meteors ii. f. 8v Some mery fellow, which of his conscience thinketh them not to bee aboue three yardes about.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 3 (1623) iii. iii. 113 Now Warwicke, tell me euen vpon thy conscience Is Edward your true King? View more context for this quotation
a1616 W. Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1623) iii. i. 28 In my conscience sir, I do not care for you. View more context for this quotation
1623 W. Shakespeare & J. Fletcher Henry VIII v. iii. 40 O' my conscience twenty of the Dog-dayes now reigne in's Nose. View more context for this quotation
1748 S. Richardson Clarissa VII. xxii. 95 Two barrels of gunpowder, by my conscience.
1768 O. Goldsmith Good Natur'd Man i. 14 On my conscience, I believe [it].
1806 Lady Morgan Wild Irish Girl I. iv. 125 ‘And do you think the son of Lord M— would have no chance of obtaining an audience from the Prince?’ ‘What, the young gentleman that they say is come to M— house? why about as much chance as his father, but by my conscience that's a bad one.’
1838 H. W. Herbert Cromwell I. ii. viii. 29 But, on my conscience, I believe that Manchester and Essex wish not to see the parliament prevail too fully.
1880 S. S. Cox Why we Laugh (new ed.) xxvi. 419 ‘Then, by my conscience,’ said Pat, ‘you've pulled them a year too soon.’
1903 Pall Mall Mag. Sept. 54 Here, upon my conscience, is a woman all clear flame, who has never yet—never yet—met with a man.
1947 S. Shellbarger Captain from Castile xxvi. 193 But on my conscience, haven't we met?
2000 W. Mahon tr. S. Ó Neachtain Hist. Éamon O'Clery i. viii. 46 ‘By my conscience,’ said the Giant, ‘I won't take a step from here to Roscommon without pursuing him until I have that little dog.’
P2. for conscience('s) sake [19th-cent. grammarians introduced an apostrophe, conscience' , to indicate the possessive: see sake n.1 II.] : out of regard to the dictates of conscience, because of one's conscience.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > [phrase] > for the sake of conscience
for conscience('s) sakec1400
society > morality > duty or obligation > recognition of duty > [phrase] > for the sake of conscience
for conscience('s) sakec1400
c1400 (?a1387) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Huntington HM 137) (1873) C. v. l. 99 For consciences sake.
1526 Bible (Tyndale) 1 Cor. x. 25 What soever is solde in the market, that eate, and axe no questions for conscience sake.
c1550 T. Becon Flour of Godly Praiers f. lxi Graunte that the subiectes may shewe all reuerent submission to theyr rulers, obey theym in all thynges, bee faythful and true to them, yea and that not onlye for feare of punyshmente but also for conscyence sake.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Coriolanus (1623) ii. iii. 34 The fourth would returne for Conscience sake . View more context for this quotation
a1635 R. Corbet Iter Boreale in Certain Elegant Poems (1647) 12 His Mare went truer then his Chronicle; And even for Conscience sake unspurr'd, unbeaten, Brought us sixe miles, and turn'd taile to New-Eaton.
1702 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion I. ii. 87 All men would have Submitted to it for Conscience sake.
1715 D. Defoe Family Instructor I. i. iv. 107 You will suffer for Conscience-sake.
1749 D. Hartley Observ. Man ii. iv. 372 Good Men ought to submit to the Ecclesiastical Powers that be, for Conscience-sake.
1770 J. Newton Rev. Eccl. Hist. ii. ii. 287 They exert all their strength and sublety to disquiet or suppress those who differ from them in the slightest circumstance, if they profess to differ for conscience-sake.
1814 W. Scott Waverley I. xi. 139 The nonjuring clergyman was a pensive and interesting old man, with much the air of a sufferer for conscience sake . View more context for this quotation
1831 J. S. Law Wrongs of Ireland 97 Irish millions under slavery groan, For conscience's sake, deprived of civil freedom, Because their faith, for lucre, won't mislead them.
1876 C. P. Mason Eng. Gram. (ed. 21) 28 Sometimes the possessive case in..nouns that end in s, x, or ce, is merely marked by placing an apostrophe after the word..But this practice is now nearly obsolete, except in a few common instances, as, ‘for conscience' sake’, ‘for goodness' sake’.
1903 Brit. Weekly 11 June 219/3 He was reluctantly compelled, for conscience sake, to refuse that part of the education rate which would go to the support of sectarian schools.
1945 W. G. Hole John Englishman 44 This particular trader, however, Happened to possess certain other qualities Which on occasion could transform him into a hero, A martyr for conscience' sake.
2007 Ledger (Lakeland, Florida) (Nexis) 18 Jan. b1 We understand these people for conscience's sake needed to leave, and we were not going to punish them for that.
P3. in (also †of) (all) conscience: in fairness, reasonably, by all that is right or reasonable.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > rightness or justice > [phrase] > by all that is right or reasonable
in (also of) (all) conscience1490
1490 W. Caxton tr. Foure Sonnes of Aymon (1885) xxviii. 577 I wyll not reteyn you for that pryse that I do knaves, for I shall paye you in conscyence after the werke that ye shall doo.
1568 Abp. M. Parker Let. 21 June in Corr. (1853) (modernized text) 326 I cannot of conscience favour them therein.
1592 A. Day Eng. Secretorie (rev. ed.) i. sig. N7 What in conscience the poore man is then liable to pay, in respect of the others charges.
1609 W. Shakespeare Pericles xvi. 20 Ther's two vnwholesome a conscience.
1622 J. Mabbe tr. M. Alemán Rogue i. 240 It is time inough of conscience.
1645 J. Howell Epistolæ Ho-elianæ vi. xlvii. 72 This is enough in conscience.
1649 Bp. J. Hall Resol. & Decisions i. iii. 29 The seller is bound in conscience..to intimate unto the buyer these faulty qualities.
1650 N. Ward Discolliminium 2 He seems to be a Gentleman of too much understanding, of all Conscience.
1701 J. Swift Disc. Contests Nobles & Commons i. 12 'Tis too soon in all conscience to repeat this Error again.
1768 L. Sterne Sentimental Journey I. 20 I've enough in conscience, Eugenius, said I.
1797 E. Bonhote Rambles Mr. Frankly I. 52 ‘And enough too, of all conscience’, exclaimed I.
1809 W. Scott Let. 14 June (1932) II. 199 I ought in conscience to have made ten thousand pretty detours about all this.
1886 W. Besant Children of Gibeon III. ii. xxvii. 143 The matter, which was bad enough in all conscience.
1928 N. Shepherd Quarry Wood xii. 137 She had had scoldings and buffetings enough in all conscience; and yet immoderate huggings too, and jammy pieces at illegitimate hours.
1969 A. McCaffrey Ship who Sang 41 It also won't be the first time when good samaritans have decided to rest on their laurels prematurely, convinced that they have in conscience done all they could.
2005 H. Mantel Beyond Black ix. 348 I liked it when Mart came and we got the takeaway, but I should have left it all for him. Though in all conscience I didn't do it for the sake of the spare ribs.
P4. to make (a) conscience: to make something a matter of conscience (see Phrases 9), to have scruples about something. to make no conscience: to have no scruples about something (cf. to think it no conscience at Phrases 7). Now archaic. rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > duty or obligation > recognition of duty > do one's duty [verb (intransitive)] > act conscientiously > make something a matter of conscience
to make (a) consciencea1402
a1402 J. Trevisa tr. R. Fitzralph Defensio Curatorum (Harl.) (1925) 46 Ȝif þei made conscience to þe menyng of þe lawe, þei schulde enforme hem þat beþ yschryue to hem, wher of þei schulde teþe.
1526 Bible (Tyndale) Rom. xiv. 23 He that maketh conscience [1611 doubteth] is dampned if he eate.
1586 Let. Earle Leycester 25 Therefore have we litle reason to trust her in that, wherof shee maketh so small a conscience.
1625 S. Purchas Pilgrimes II. viii. viii. 1276 They will..make more conscience to breake a Fast, then to commit a Murther.
1671 H. M. tr. Erasmus Colloquies 69 I make conscience to say thou lyest.
1685 H. More Cursory Refl. 21 For my part, I should make a conscience in abusing the World with such Trash.
1685 R. Baxter Paraphr. New Test. Matt. xxvii. 6 Arch-hypocrites make conscience of Ceremony, and make no conscience of Perjury.
1722 D. Defoe Jrnl. Plague Year 12 If he be one that makes Conscience of his Duty.
1788 J. Priestley Lect. Hist. i. ii. 24 A man who made no conscience of any villany.
1856 R. W. Emerson Eng. Traits ix. 146 [He] makes a conscience of persisting in it.
1872 Phrenol. Jrnl. Dec. 422/1 Those who make conscience of speaking the truth, generally prosper in the world.
1916 Homiletic Rev. Mar. 237/2 The prevalent tendency is to make no conscience of the sins of omission.
P5. to speak (also †tell) one's conscience: to speak one's mind, express one's own conviction; to tell the truth. Now chiefly U.S.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > belief > belief, trust, confidence > act of convincing, conviction > convince someone [phrase] > express conviction
to speak (also tell) one's conscience1549
I guess1692
1549 H. Latimer 1st Serm. before Kynges Grace sig. Ciii I speake my conscience as gods worde directhe me.
1563 J. Foxe Actes & Monuments 1399/2 I am not bound to tell you my conscience of your demaunds.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry V (1623) iv. i. 117 By my troth, I will speake my conscience of the King. View more context for this quotation
1729 B. Mandeville Fable Bees ii. iii. 98 Cleo. Have you found any such thing in it? Hor. To speak my Conscience, I must confess, I have not.
1743 in Baptist Mag. Apr. (1865) 212/2 I was constrained to speak my conscience.
1845 C. Toulmin Lays & Legends xvii. 138 I always told my conscience.
1846 J. C. Hare Mission of Comforter II. 979 Men will question all my argumentations and persuasions, when they see me in the dignity which I plead for, but will take me to speak my conscience impartially, when I am but as one of them.
1971 Crisis Apr.–May 101/2 His attributes were indeed great, and his shortcomings few stemming, primarily, from the inequities of the nation which forced him into exile after condemning him for speaking his conscience.
2005 San Francisco Chron. (Nexis) 13 Oct. b1 If speaking your conscience is something that gets you dismissed from your job, then I'm not sure I'm very proud to be here today.
†P6. to do one's conscience: to act according to one's sense of what is right. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > duty or obligation > recognition of duty > do one's duty [verb (intransitive)] > act conscientiously
to do one's consciencea1571
a1571 J. Jewel Expos. Two Epist. Paul to Thessalonians (1583) (2 Thess. ii.) 360 Let no man say, I hope I doe wel, my meaning is good, I haue a desire to please God: I beleeue wel, I doe my conscience.
1658 H. Edmundson Fellow-traveller through City & Countrey (new ed.) 96 The same Iury, before they gave up their verdict, prayed of the Senate a Guard, that they might do their conscience freely against Clodius.
1691 T. Hale Acct. New Inventions p. xcviii Magistrates are great Blessings..if they dare do their Conscience.
1718 G. Duncombe Trials per Pais ix. 147 If either Party labour the Juror to appear, and to do his Conscience this is no Challenge at all, but lawful for him to do it.
†P7. to think it no conscience: to think nothing wrong in doing something, have no scruples. Cf. to make no conscience at Phrases 4. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > lack of principle or integrity > be unprincipled [verb (intransitive)] > be unscrupulous
to stick at nothing1525
to think it no conscience1578
to stand at nothing1632
1578 J. Lyly Euphues f. 30v Thou hast thought it no conscience to betray me.
1607 G. Wilkins Three Miseries Barbary sig. A2v These Elkes or Regadoes..seeme Saints, and holy ones, to me they may proue Diuels, and hold it no conscience to betray my bloud and Kingdome.
1827 H. Stalman Pract. Treat. Law iii. 249 The said copyhold lands could be no bar of dower: and the report states, that the Court thought it no conscience she should have both.
P8. to have the conscience: (a) to consider it right or acceptable to do something; (b) (ironically) to have the assurance or effrontery to (now rare).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > pride > impudence > be or become impudent [verb (intransitive)] > be impudent enough to
to have the face (to do something)?1562
to have the conscience1595
to have the cheek (to do something)1823
to have a nerve1887
1595 ‘J. Dando’ & ‘H. Runt’ Maroccus Extaticus sig. B3 What thinke you by him that had the conscience to aske fourteene yeardes of Satten for a sute of Apparell, and not to put in nine of them.
1687 A. Behn Luckey Chance iv. i. 51 And can you have the Conscience to carry away all our Money Sir?
1690 J. Dryden Amphitryon i. ii. 8 I..saw him knocking at the Gate; and I had the Conscience to let him cool his Heels there.
?1710 Squire Bickerstaff Detected 5 A Third Rogue tips me by the Elbow, and wonders how I have the Conscience to sneak abroad.
1797 Encycl. Brit. XII. 259/2 They had the conscience to charge an English sea officer..300 livres (12 guineas and a half) for eight days lodging.
1835 Farmer's Mag. Feb. 180/2 The extortionate rents; at least double as much as any English landlord would have the conscience to ask.
1856 R. A. Vaughan Hours with Mystics (1860) I. vi. iii. 170 He had the conscience to expect that we magistrates would meddle in his dispute and take his part.
1918 A. R. Taber Let. 22 Aug. in S. R. Taber Arthur Richmond Taber (1920) 151 I was having a sufficiently ‘good time’, and therefore have not had the conscience to put in an application for another leave.
1997 W. Aarvik in T. Frängsmyr & I. Abrams Nobel Lect. Peace 1981–90 134 How is it possible, in a world ravaged by famine, poverty and sickness, that anyone has the conscience to use more than 800 million dollars a year on armaments?
2005 D. Danenberg How to restore your Wooden Runabout II. ii. 21/2 Will you have the conscience to warn him or her away from buying your boat?
P9. a matter of conscience: a matter in which conscience will determine decisions or attitudes.
ΚΠ
1564 T. Harding Answere to Iuelles Chalenge i. f. 26 Now for the seruant, it is a streight case that so holy and so great a Patriake and bishop of so populouse a citie..shuld haue none of his spiritual flocke with him at so weightie a matter of conscience, but one onely, and him his owne houshold seruant.
1602 W. Watson Decacordon Ten Quodlibeticall Questions 171 The seculars..made it a matter of conscience, thereby to retell, infringe, and abrogate all such premunireall treachery.
1672 A. Marvell Rehearsal Transpros'd i. 104 He had intangled the matter of Conscience with the Magistrates Power.
1702 Eng. Theophrastus 298 Tho' they are not matter of conscience, simply and apart, they are so reductively, with a regard to other considerations.
1729 W. Law Serious Call ix. 128 To make their use of liquors a matter of conscience, and allow of no refreshments, but such as are consistent with the strictest rules of Christian sobriety?
1799 tr. J.-F. de Bourgoing Hist. & Philos. Mem. Pius VI II. xvii. 23 He would communicate all such of the nuncio's papers as solely related to matters of conscience.
1829 L. J. A. de Potter Mem. Scipio de Ricci I. i. 6 Regalists..make of religion what it really is, a matter of conscience, and leave the care of government to those who are charged with it.
1861 R. F. Burton City of Saints (1862) x. 380 It would become a matter of conscience with them, and a part of their religion, and they would be bound to exercise their faith in this doctrine, and practice it, or be condemned.
1930 G. S. Counts Amer. Road to Culture iii. 36 They [sc. Americans] maintain that there are certain matters of conscience in which the state must not interfere.
1970 E. B. Greenberger Arthur Hugh Clough iii. 112 The idea that he might eventually have to give up his tutorship as a matter of conscience had been present in Clough's mind..since the time he undertook it.
2009 A. J. Shaw Crisis of Conscience iii. 93 Leaving the matter of conscience to the individual, rather than making non-resistance a point of doctrine, forced an objector to rely upon his own convictions.

Compounds

C1.
a. General attributive.
† conscience-engagement n. Obsolete rare
ΚΠ
1662 Earl of Orrery Coll. State Lett. (1743) II. 379 If they be not faithful to the conscience-engagement.
conscience qualm n.
ΚΠ
1655 E. Gayton Wil: Bagnal's Ghost 10 I can't doe To passe the time (while hee's i'th pew) As others. Who both in Hopkins, and King-Psalmes, Have never any Conscience qualmes, But have their Pots and pipes in Palmes.
1805 Evening Fire-side 6 July 233/2 But his companions laugh'd to scorn Those conscience-qualms.
1860 E. B. Pusey Minor Prophets 447 Just to satisfy their conscience-qualms.
1945 Life 15 Jan. 88 (advt.) You can still enjoy one of life's luxuries without a conscience qualm.
1993 Bull. Atomic Scientists Sept. 16/1 Cuba would have no conscience qualms in keeping in our territory a radioelectronic exploration center from a country we do not consider an enemy.
conscience scruple n.
ΚΠ
1606 W. Birnie Blame of Kirk-buriall xix. sig. F3 Vnder skough of the conscience scruple, to adheare to this vncouth vse, it were but conceate.
1828 E. Holmes Ramble among Musicians Germany 247 Students who study casuistry to vanquish and overthrow their conscience scruples.
1880 R. Browning Dramatic Idyls 2nd Ser. 94 Pricks which passed for conscience-scruples.
1980 J. E. Toews Hegelianism (1985) vi. 171 Strauss tried to assure Märklin that he need have no conscience scruples about preaching in the language of the orthodox faith.
2008 W. A. Scheinberg World Citizen xxxiv. 192 Moreover, if he/she has few conscience scruples, anyway he/she can blame me of my errors and his/hers with his/her upper lord.
† conscience-water n. Obsolete rare
ΚΠ
1702 J. Vanbrugh False Friend ii He never goes without a dram of conscience-water about him, to set matters right again.
b. Instrumental and locative with past participial adjectives, as conscience-harried, conscience-haunted, conscience-pricked, conscience-ridden, conscience-smitten, conscience-stricken, conscience-struck, etc.
ΚΠ
1617 J. Vicars tr. F. Herring Mischeefes Mysterie 92 The conscience-pricked prisoners did confesse.
1726 D. Defoe Polit. Hist. Devil ii. vii. 287 A timorous, Conscience-harry'd..Wretch.
1788 H. L. Piozzi Diary 4 Apr. in Thraliana (1942) II. 714 Merry is..of elegant and airy Manners, but of a Melancholy and apparently Conscience-smitten Spirit.
1810 W. Sotheby Constance De Castile viii. viii. 127 Haply, 'twas conscience-haunted guilt, Blood of the brave, unjustly spilt.
1816 J. Austen Emma II. xvi. 302 She was more conscience-stricken about Jane Fairfax than she had often been. View more context for this quotation
1849 D. M. Mulock Ogilvies (1875) 37 Conscience-smitten for the little notice she had taken of her cousin.
1885 G. Meredith Diana of Crossways III. i. 5 The vagrant compassionateness of sentimentalists;—rich, idle, conscience-pricked or praise-catching.
1898 G. B. Shaw Perfect Wagnerite 64 Our guilty and conscience-ridden generations.
1913 J. S. Holden Life's Flood-tide v. 79 And with the dawning of this light there comes refuge and rest to the poor conscience-harried soul.
1929 S. Angus Relig. Quests of Graeco-Roman World vii. 122 Jesus' religion of the direct approach of every son, however sin-polluted and conscience-stricken, to a Father whose love required no pleader and was moved by deeper motives than merit.
1959 J. Cary Captive & Free 207 How typical she was. So nice, so gentle, so conscience-ridden, ripe for the slaughter.
1995 Georgia Straight 12 Oct. 38/5 Assassins is a cartoony mélange of stock espionage themes and characters: the reluctant, conscience-riddled killer; [etc.].
2003 Time Out N.Y. 24 Apr. 107/1 There is a grim logic when the conscience-haunted Jimmy..ends up in a haunted city.
c. Objective with present participial adjectives and verbal nouns, as conscience-easing, conscience-pacifying, conscience-wasting, etc.
ΚΠ
1640 T. Fuller Joseph's Coat 93 As for destroyers of grace it is two-fold: first the blighting or blasting of a conscience-wasting sinne... Secondly, the drowth, and scorching heat of persecution.
1647 T. Fuller Cause Wounded Conscience iii. 17 The committing of a conscience-wasting sin.
1673 J. Flavell Fountain of Life xi. 135 Conscience pacifying, and soul quieting blood.
1811–26 S. T. Coleridge Marginalia (2000) V. 604 A conscience-worrying casuistical monkish Work-holiness.
1834 J. Hewson Christ Rejected (ed. 2) xi. 209 A very few of our learned profession believe that there is one word of truth in that conscience troubling volume, called the Bible.
1864 Gospel Standard 1 Jan. 8 To have been kept from conscience-wasting sins is no small mercy.
1874 Evangelical Repository Sept. 25 ‘Thy sin is forgiven; go in peace, and sin no more,’ is the response of the conscience-pacifying oracle.
1905 Westm. Gaz. 26 June 10/2 In this way they think the conscience-salving method of evasion, passive neglect, would be rendered less easy.
1979 Tucson (Arizona) Mag. Apr. 62/3 The solar heater begins paying off immediately in conscience-easing.
1996 I. Rankin in M. Edwards Perfectly Criminal 204 He was now regarded as a ‘senior statesman’, and the American president sent him on the occasional high-profile, high-publicity spot of troubleshooting and conscience-salving.
2004 S. B. Ferguson in C. W. Morgan & R. A. Peterson Hell under Fire x. 224 In particular, the preacher needs to unmask the specific conscience-easing lies we speak to ourselves through an open manifestation of the truth.
C2.
conscience clause n. a clause in an act or law providing exemptions on the grounds of conscience or belief.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > written law > [noun] > clause > types of clause
amendment1581
sanction1651
tack1705
money clause1844
conscience clause1859
interpretation clause1897
joker1904
1859 Act 22 & 23 Vict. c. 102 Sched. Conscience Clause. No Boy shall be required to learn [..for example, the Catechism, Articles, or Liturgy of the Church of England,] or to attend the Celebration of Divine Worship.
1888 Spectator 30 June 875 So long as the conscience clause is strictly enforced, and all parents are allowed to withdraw their children from the moral and religious education given if they disapprove it.
1916 M. Miles Out-and-Outer 5 To the unprejudiced observer it might well seem that a man who took such an uncompromisingly hostile view of War was the very kind of person for whom the conscience clause was designed. But no. He is of the one class of Conscientious Objector who is to-day regarded and treated as a criminal.
1962 New Scientist 22 Feb. 458/3 The law pertaining to [smallpox] vaccination has not always contained a conscience clause. That was introduced by the Act of 1898.
2005 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 3 Apr. iv. 12/1 An organization of antiabortion pharmacists is pushing for professional associations and state legislatures to adopt ‘conscience clauses’ recognizing the pharmacist's right to refuse to dispense a drug or even refer the customer to a pharmacist who will.
conscience issue n. an issue on which a person is guided by his or her conscience, as opposed to acting for pragmatic or party political reasons.
ΚΠ
1856 Daily Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee) 28 Feb. 2/3 (heading) The conscience issue applied to Kansas. But you insist that your conscience will not allow you to sit still and see the extension of slavery going on in this country.
1901 Green Bag Dec. 552/1 He..was always ready to give encouragement and effective personal work to what may be called ‘conscience issues’ like Civil Service Reform.
1962 Marriage & Family Living 24 97/1 The conscience issue may still be for many, or even most, a more critical one than good interpersonal relations.
2009 F. E. Lee Beyond Ideol. iv. 90 Party pressure has little effect on ‘conscience issues’ such as abortion, affirmative action, gay rights, and school prayer.
conscience money n. money sent or paid to relieve the conscience of a person who feels guilty; spec. money in payment of a tax that was previously evaded (now historical).
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > compensation > [noun] > to ease the conscience
conscience money1834
1834 Missionary Herald (Boston) Nov. 428/2 Worcester co. Ms. A friend, conscience money 20 00.
1848 W. M. Thackeray Vanity Fair xliv. 396 One reads in the columns of the Times newspaper..queer announcements from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, acknowledging the receipt of £50 from A.B...as conscience-money, on account of taxes due.
1885 ‘H. Conway’ Family Affair I. i. 3 Those tender-minded persons who send conscience-money to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
1907 Westm. Gaz. 3 Dec. 2/3 Those who have to contribute the tax in the form of ‘conscience money’.
1961 P. Ustinov Loser ii. 35 Two men he had never seen before rose from their tables and paid the difference... It was conscience money.
2009 M. Weissenbacher Sources of Power I. iii. xiv. 321 This so-called Gadsden Purchase..was a deal worth $10 million and was viewed as conscience money by many Americans who felt that the United States had treated the Republic of Mexico badly.
conscience-proof adj. able to ignore one's conscience; free of guilt or compunction.
ΚΠ
1683 R. Dixon Canidia v. iii. 35 If you can get to be Conscience proof, Steal an Ox and leave the Hoof.
1794 H. Siddons Sicilian Romance ii. i. 24 After this tug, I think I'm conscience proof.
1825 S. T. Coleridge Aids Refl. 177 For every mind not..desperately conscience-proof.
1930 R. C. Flannagan Whipping xvi. 210 Within ten minutes he was calling her ‘my daughter’ and was aglow from her conscience-proof physical charm.
2000 Dayton (Ohio) Daily News (Nexis) 23 June 7 Let's only slightly take issue with the conscience-proof, raunchy narrative.
conscience vote n. a vote cast on the basis of conscience or principles, rather than pragmatism or party affiliation.
ΚΠ
1846 Emancipator (Boston) 2 Dec. 128/1 The ‘conscience votes’ turned out but driblets And ‘Liberty’ is but the giblets Of our great squaking northern goose.
1876 Times 1 June 6/2 I want to have another Conference held and a third candidate nominated for whom we can at least have the satisfaction of throwing a conscience vote.
1960 New Eng. Q. 33 446 To the young politicians, both Mugwumps and like-minded Democrats, reform and progress could not be brought about by the mere withholding of a conscience vote.
2009 J. R. Parkinson in R. Geenens & R. Tinnevelt Does Truth Matter? viii. 111 Only on so-called ‘conscience’ votes, where the party has taken no line, do the MPs vote themselves, in which case the dramatic impact of crossing the floor does not apply anyway.

Derivatives

ˈconscience-wise adv. with regard to conscience.
ΚΠ
1845 T. W. Coit Puritanism 205 Their ancestors, conscience-wise considered, were better men than they are.
1894 M. H. Foote Cœur d’Alene xii. 188 With his daughter presiding, conscience-wise, over personal habits,..it was no wonder that a frail-minded old gentleman..should have gone off somewhat in his temper.
1986 M. T. Mannion Abortion & Healing iv. 44 Maybe morally, conscience-wise, even theologically, that could be true.
2000 G. K. Popcak & L. Popcak Parenting with Grace ii. viii. 203/1 At seven, the child reaches the ‘age of reason’ with all that means, both cognitively and conscience-wise.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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