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