make conscience

verb

To make it a matter of conscience; to be scrupulous about.

First used 16th–19th c.
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Meanings

verbmake conscience (third-person singular simple present makes conscience, present participle making conscience, simple past and past participle made conscience)

present singular third person makes conscience · participle present making conscience · participle past made conscience · past made conscience · alternative make a conscience

  1. obsoleteTo make it a matter of conscience; to be scrupulous about.First known use 16th–19th c.

    The pursy man means by freedom the right to do as he pleases, and does wrong in order to feel his freedom, and makes a conscience of persisting in it.

    1856, Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, Cockayne
    2 more examples

    I make a conscience [translating faits conscience], standing neare some great person, if mine eyes chance, at unwares, to steale some knowledge of any letters of importance that he readeth.

    1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 4, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

    I mention this story also as the best method I can advise any person to take in such a case, especially if he be one that makes conscience of his duty, and would be directed what to do in it[…].

    1722, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year
Cite this entry
APA

make conscience. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/make%20conscience

MLA

“make conscience.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/make%20conscience. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “make conscience,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/make%20conscience.

Source: make conscience on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.