conscience-stricken

American  

[kon-shuhns-strik-uhn] / ˈkɒn ʃənsˌstrɪk ən /

adjective

1. greatly troubled or disturbed by the knowledge of having acted wrongfully.

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conscience-stricken British  

adjective

1. Also: conscience-smitten.  feeling anxious or guilty

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Etymology

Origin of conscience-stricken

First recorded in 1810–20

Example Sentences

He would later portray himself as a conscience-stricken and unwilling participant in Hitler’s crimes, and his gamble on the sympathy of the judges at Nuremberg paid off.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 24, 2025

Most of those who did get out were rescued only by the initiative of conscience-stricken troops and diplomats in Kabul, and by a loose network of tireless volunteers working around-the-clock stateside.

From Washington Post • Feb. 1, 2022

It’s to this rigorously intellectual and self-questioning filmmaker’s credit that he doesn’t present these parts of his oeuvre as anything but conscience-stricken stabs at making sense of it all.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 14, 2021

In “Please Give,” Keener’s character—a conscience-stricken dealer of mid-century-modern furniture that she buys from children of the recently deceased—leaves a restaurant and offers her leftovers to an elderly African-American man standing outside.

From The New Yorker • Jul. 30, 2018

She lay on the floor of the cabin, motionless, conscience-stricken, filled with horror.

From "Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad" by Ann Petry