make conscience

English

Alternative forms

Verb

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

  1. (obsolete) To make it a matter of conscience; to be scrupulous about. [16th–19th c.]
    • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 4, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
      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.
    • 1722 March, H[enry] F[oe] [pseudonym; Daniel Defoe], A Journal of the Plague Year: […], London: […] E[lizabeth] Nutt […]; J. Roberts […]; A. Dodd […]; and J. Graves […], →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 […].
    • 1856, Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, Cockayne:
      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.
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