make conscience
verb1
Obsolete To make it a matter of conscience; to be scrupulous about.
- 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:
1 more example
- 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