Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - self-conscious

1. Someone who is self-conscious is easily embarrassed and nervous because they feel that everyone is looking at them and judging them. I felt a bit self-conscious in my swimming costume... Bess was self-conscious about being shorter than her two friends. ADJ: usu v-link ADJ, oft ADJ about n • self-consciously She was fiddling self-consciously with her wedding ring. ADV: ADV with v • self-consciousness ...her painful self-consciousness. N-UNCOUNT 2. If you describe someone or something as self-conscious, you mean that they are strongly aware of who or what they are. (FORMAL) Putting the work together is a very self-conscious process. ADJ • self-consciously The world which the book inhabits seems too self-consciously literary, too introverted... ADV: ADV adj