guilty conscience
16
4.2
- noun
- /ˈɡɪlti ˈkɒnʃəns/
:
conciencia culpable
- Her guilty conscience made it hard for her to sleep that night.
Now he says I must have a guilty conscience if I won't sign these terms because if I'm so certain it won't happen then what's the problem?
- Now he says I must have a guilty conscience if I won't sign these terms because if I'm so certain it won't happen then what's the problem?
Examples
-
I guess he's got a guilty conscience or something.
-
Tom's guilty conscience got to him again this time for keeping quiet about Mr. Potter's innocence.
Fiction book (2001) -
And what part did a guilty conscience play in that?
-
And now you have a guilty conscience.
-
People have a guilty conscience.
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You must have a guilty conscience.
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Suffering from a guilty conscience?
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Now we can afford it, without a guilty conscience.
Fiction book (1993) -
Maybe she doesn't want to get involved because she has a guilty conscience.
Blog text (8) -
In Chapter 1 of WMF, he clearly has a guilty conscience about the episode.
Blog text (9)
Synonyms
418
2.3
A painful feeling of guilt and embarrassment about something you did wrong
375
2.4
A feeling of being sorry and responsible for doing something wrong
156
4.5
A deep, painful feeling of regret and guilt after doing something wrong
31
6.6
A feeling of deep regret and a wish to change after doing wrong
19
8.4
A deep feeling of regret and sorrow for something you did wrong
10
9.6
A feeling of guilt that stops you from doing something bad or follows it
5
4.9
A feeling of guilt that makes you try not to do something wrong
4
7.9
A feeling of being sorry for something you did wrong
1
6.1
A sudden sharp feeling of regret about something you did or did not do
1
5.0
A sudden sharp feeling of guilt
1
3.9
Feeling sorry and responsible for doing something wrong
1
4.9
A feeling that you did something wrong or illegal
1
7.1
A feeling of blaming yourself for something you did wrong
1
6.0
A small feeling of guilt in a situation
A deep feeling of regret and sorrow for doing something wrong
A sudden strong feeling of being sorry for something you did
Antonyms
How Guilty
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and transparently derived from combining 'guilty' (feeling remorse) with 'conscience' (one's internal sense of right and wrong): it denotes a conscience that makes someone feel guilty. This adjective+noun composition is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Guilty conscience shows a clear image: the word conscience is like an inner voice or small judge inside you and guilty means it tells you you did something wrong, making you feel bad. So a guilty conscience is 'a feeling of remorse' after you know you have done something wrong.