conceit

plural conceits · alternative obsolete conceipt

1. countableobsoleteuncountableSomething conceived in the mind; an idea, a thought.First known use 14th–18th c.

   a man wise in his own conceit

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 26:12

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   In laughing, there ever procedeth a conceit of somewhat ridiculous.

   1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC

   It was after a night like this that I shocked the community with a queer conceit about the burial of the rich and celebrated Squire Brewster […]

   1922, H. P. Lovecraft, “The Tomb”, in The Vagrant

2. countableuncountableThe faculty of conceiving ideas; mental faculty; apprehension.

   a man of quick conceit

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   How often, alas! did her eyes say unto me that they loved! and yet I, not looking for such a matter, had not my conceit open to understand them.

   The New Arcadia

   a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC

3. countableuncountableQuickness of apprehension; active imagination; lively fancy.

   His wit's as thick as Tewksbury mustard; there is no more conceit in him than is in a mallet.

   c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]

4. countableobsoleteuncountableOpinion, (neutral) judgment.First known use 14th–18th c.
5. archaiccountabledialectaluncountableEsteem, favourable opinion.First known use 15th c.

   By him that me boughte, than quod Dysdayne, / I wonder sore he is in suche cenceyte.

   1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Courte

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   [G]ive him thy thanks for putting her into conceit with the sex that thou hast given her so much reason to execrate.

   1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter CCCXLV”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC

6. countableA novel or fanciful idea; a whim.First known use 16th c.

   On his way to the gibbet, a freak took him in the head to go off with a conceit.

   1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC

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   Some to conceit alone their works confine, / And glitt'ring thoughts struck out at ev'ry line.

   1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC

   Tasso[…] is full of conceits […] which are not only below the dignity of heroic verse but contrary to its nature.

   1693, John Dryden, An Essay on Satire

   By reason of these things, then, the whaling voyage was welcome; the great flood-gates of the wonder-world swung open, and in the wild conceits that swayed me to my purpose, two and two there floated into my inmost soul, endless processions of the whale, and, mid most of them all, one grand hooded phantom, like a snow hill in the air.

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 1, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 7

   The book's main conceit is to make poetry from univocal words (words containing just one vowel) […]

   2012, Lauren Elkin, Scott Esposito, The End of Oulipo?: An attempt to exhaust a movement

7. countablerhetoricliteratureAn ingenious expression or metaphorical idea, especially in extended form or used as a literary or rhetorical device.First known use 16th c.

   Jones and Palin wrote and starred in The Complete and Utter History of Britain (1969) for LWT. Its conceit was to relate historical incidents as if TV had existed at the time.

   2020 January 22, Stuart Jeffries, “Terry Jones obituary”, in The Guardian

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   The “cyberspace” conceit allows him to dramatize computer hacking in nontechnical language, although I wonder how much his somewhat florid descriptions of the “bodiless exultation of cyberspace” will mean to readers who have not experienced the illusion of power that punching the keyboard of even a dinky little word-processor can give.

   1985 November 24, Gerald Jonas, “Science Fiction”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   In the next and final stanza, Donne expands the conceit of world exploration to present us with a further distinction between the spirituality of the lovers and the “map reader” and “sea-discoverers.”

   2009, Harold Bloom, John Donne, Infobase Publishing, →ISBN, page 16

8. uncountableOverly high self-esteem; vain pride; hubris.First known use 17th c.

   Plum'd with conceit he calls aloud.

   1826, Nathaniel Cotton, Fables

9. countableuncountableDesign; pattern.

   And yet I know not how conceit may rob the treasury of life when life itself yields to the theft;

   c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi]

present singular third person conceits · participle present conceiting · participle past conceited · past conceited · alternative obsolete conceipt

1. obsoleteTo form an idea; to think.

   Those whose […] vulgar apprehensions conceit but low of matrimonial purposes.

   1643, John Milton, The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce

2. obsoletetransitiveTo conceive.

   [T]his Medicine he conceits worse than the Disesase.

   c. 1620s, Elizabeth Cary [misattributed to Henry Cary], The History Of the most unfortunate Prince King Edward II. […] , London: A.G. and F. P., published 1680, page 36

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   That owls and ravens are ominous appearers, and presignifying unlucky events, as Christians yet conceit, was also an augurial conception.

   1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, V.23

   The strong, by conceiting themselves weak, are therebly rendered as inactive […] as if they really were so.

   1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London