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n. Idioms: 1. a. An awareness of morality in regard to one's behavior; a sense of right and wrong that urges one to act morally: Let your conscience be your guide. b. A source of moral or ethical judgment or pronouncement: a document that serves as the nation's conscience. c. Conformity to one's own sense of right conduct: a person of unflagging conscience. 2. The part of the superego in psychoanalysis that judges the ethical nature of one's actions and thoughts and then transmits such determinations to the ego for consideration. 3. Obsolete Consciousness or awareness of something. in (all good) conscience In all fairness; by any reasonable standard. on (one's) conscience Causing one to feel guilty or uneasy. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin cōnscientia, from cōnsciēns, cōnscient-, present participle of cōnscīre, to be conscious of : com-, intensive pref.; see COM- + scīre, to know; see skei- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] conscience·less adj. |
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