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In conscience

 - 6 dictionary results
Moral Compass
Hesitating to help an injured man. Lack of moral compass or mistake?
www.ResponsibilityProject.com

con⋅science

  [kon-shuhns]
Use In conscience in a Sentence
–noun
1. the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one's conduct or motives, impelling one toward right action: to follow the dictates of conscience.
2. the complex of ethical and moral principles that controls or inhibits the actions or thoughts of an individual.
3. an inhibiting sense of what is prudent: I'd eat another piece of pie but my conscience would bother me.
4. conscientiousness.
5. Obsolete. consciousness; self-knowledge.
6. Obsolete. strict and reverential observance.
—Idioms
7. have something on one's conscience, to feel guilty about something, as an act that one considers wrong: She behaves as if she had something on her conscience.
8. in all conscience,
a. in all reason and fairness.
b. certainly; assuredly.
Also, in conscience.
Origin:
1175–1225; ME < AF < L conscientia knowledge, awareness, conscience. See con-, science

Related forms:
con⋅science⋅less, adjective
con⋅science⋅less⋅ly, adverb
con⋅science⋅less⋅ness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Moral Compass
Hesitating to help an injured man. Lack of moral compass or mistake?
www.ResponsibilityProject.com
Word Origin & History

conscience 
c.1225, from O.Fr. conscience, from L. conscientia "knowledge within oneself, a moral sense," prp. of conscire "be mutually aware," from com- "with" + scire "to know." Probably a loan-translation of Gk. syneidesis. Sometimes nativized in O.E./M.E. as inwit. Rus. also uses a loan-translation, so-vest, "conscience," lit. "with-knowledge." Conscientious objector first recorded 1916.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Legal Dictionary

Main Entry: con·science
Function: adjective
: exempting persons whose religious beliefs forbid compliance <conscience laws, which allow physicians…to refuse to participate in abortions —W. J. Curran>
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: con·science
Pronunciation: 'kän-ch&n(t)s
Function: noun
: the part of the superego in psychoanalysis that transmits commands andadmonitions to the ego
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

conscience con·science (kŏn'shəns)
n.

  1. The awareness of a moral or ethical aspect to one's conduct together with the urge to prefer right over wrong.

  2. The part of the superego that judges the ethical nature of one's actions and thoughts and then transmits such determinations to the ego for consideration.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Idioms & Phrases

in conscience

Also, in all good conscience. In all truth or fairness, as in I can't in conscience say that the meeting went well, or In all good conscience we can't support their stand on disarmament. [Late 1500s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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