Definition

1. Noun:
   • Payment made voluntarily to reduce guilt over dishonest dealings: Money that a person pays, often anonymously, because they feel guilty about having acquired it dishonestly or unfairly in the past. It is an act intended to ease one's conscience.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • He sent a large sum of conscience money to the charity after years of guilt over the tax he had evaded.
  • The anonymous donation was believed to be conscience money from someone involved in the scandal.

Advanced Usage

• The term often implies that the payment is made without being compelled by law, driven purely by a personal sense of moral obligation or remorse.
  • The concept of conscience money is more about personal atonement than legal restitution.

Variants and Related Words

• Conscience (n): A person's moral sense of right and wrong.
  • His conscience wouldn't allow him to keep the money.
• Guilt money (n, informal): A less formal synonym for conscience money.
  • He viewed the payment as simple guilt money.

Synonyms

• Atonement payment: A payment made to make amends for a wrong.
• Restitution (in a voluntary, moral context): The restoration of something lost or stolen, or payment for loss or injury.

Related Phrases

• To ease one's conscience: To do something to reduce feelings of guilt.
  • He paid the conscience money to ease his conscience.
• A guilty conscience: A feeling of guilt about something one has done wrong.
  • It was a guilty conscience that finally prompted him to send the conscience money.

Noun

1. payment made voluntarily to reduce guilt over dishonest dealings