have a clear conscience

Idioms

Also, have a clean conscience. Feel free of guilt or responsibility. For example, I have a clear conscience—I did all I could to help. This idiom is also put as, as in His conscience is clean about telling the whole story. The adjective clear has been used in the sense of “innocent” since about 1400; clean was so used from about 1300.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Since I have a clear conscience regarding the incident, I have always believed that it is right that I stand my ground in the face of the abuse I have received during my football career.

From BBC • Dec. 14, 2025

At the end of the play, no one can possibly have a clear conscience.

From Los Angeles Times • May 26, 2023

But finally being able to share this meant I can now have a clear conscience… The singer, Jim Haas, has since passed away, unfortunately.

From Fox News • Jan. 4, 2020

I felt I had accomplished something that allowed me to have a clear conscience based upon what I had seen and read about and knew were happening in both Iraq and Afghanistan everyday.

From Salon • Mar. 1, 2013

To say that we have a clear conscience is to utter a solecism: had we never sinned we should have had no conscience.—Carlyle.

From Pearls of Thought by Ballou, Maturin Murray

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023