From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishself-consciousˌself-ˈconscious adjective 1 EMBARRASSEDworried and embarrassed about what you look like or what other people think of youself-conscious about Jerry’s pretty self-conscious about his weight.► see thesaurus at embarrassed, shy2 Aself-conscious art, writing etc shows that the artist etc is paying too much attention to how the public will react to their work —self-consciously adverb The boys posed rather self-consciously for the photo. —self-consciousness noun [uncountable]
Examples from the Corpus
self-conscious• "I've never drunk wine before, " I said, suddenly self-conscious.• He wore nothing except shorts, and was unlike the head of Nefertiti in that he was self-conscious.• It has to be closely supervised but provides a good job for any adult who might be feeling somewhat self-conscious.• Teenagers are often very self-conscious about their appearance.• At first, there were faint murmurings, barely audible even within the row, and self-conscious answers from the team leader.• I always feel really self-conscious in a bikini.• However, be careful of creating self-conscious metaphors and similes.• A self-conscious orphan, she took emotional refuge in social form and social skills.• Mary had provoked sensations of his childhood; one of them was this womb-echoing self-conscious snugness indoors, safe from outside turbulence.• Her diary was written in a strangely self-conscious style.• The superintendent divined from the self-conscious way he carried himself that Hebden wished he had.self-conscious about• Leo's still self-conscious about his accent. 