conceit
NOUN · English
Experimental / limited support
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The corpus records 9 senses of conceit. Each sense below has its own Add to list, so you choose the one you mean.
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Experimental coverage — measured below Partial on the number of recorded words, definitions, translations, word forms and pronunciation. Treat entries as evidence to check; meanings may be incomplete.
English is Experimental in Words. Support is measured, not declared: a language reaches Partial only when every measure meets its threshold, and a measure that has not been taken does not count. The development corpus holds 60 source-backed words in English. What is shown may be incomplete, and pronunciation audio, generated forms and generated examples are not offered.
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Definition: Something conceived in the mind; an idea, a thought. From a source of medium confidence.
countable · obsolete · uncountable
No translation has been attempted for this sense.
- 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:
- a man wise in his own conceit 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 26:12:
- 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:
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Definition: The faculty of conceiving ideas; mental faculty; apprehension. From a source of medium confidence.
countable · uncountable
No translation has been attempted for this sense.
- a man of quick conceit Usage example — not an attested quotation.
- 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. 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:
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Definition: Quickness of apprehension; active imagination; lively fancy. From a source of medium confidence.
countable · uncountable
No translation has been attempted for this sense.
- 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]:
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Definition: Opinion, (neutral) judgment. From a source of medium confidence.
countable · obsolete · uncountable
No translation has been attempted for this sense.
No example is recorded for this sense.
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Definition: Esteem, favourable opinion. From a source of medium confidence.
archaic · countable · dialectal · uncountable
No translation has been attempted for this sense.
- By him that me boughte, than quod Dysdayne, / I wonder sore he is in suche cenceyte. 1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Courte:
- [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:
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Definition: A novel or fanciful idea; a whim. From a source of medium confidence.
countable
No translation has been attempted for this sense.
- 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:
- 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:
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Definition: An ingenious expression or metaphorical idea, especially in extended form or used as a literary or rhetorical device. From a source of medium confidence.
countable · rhetoric
No translation has been attempted for this sense.
- 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:
- 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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Definition: Overly high self-esteem; vain pride; hubris. From a source of medium confidence.
uncountable
No translation has been attempted for this sense.
- Plum'd with conceit he calls aloud. 1826, Nathaniel Cotton, Fables:
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Definition: Design; pattern. From a source of medium confidence.
countable · uncountable
No translation has been attempted for this sense.
- 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]:
No paradigm has been compiled for this word yet.
Etymology: From Middle English conceyte, formed from conceyven by analogy with pairs such as (Modern English) deceive~deceit, receive~receipt etc. Doublet of concept and concetto. Akin to Portuguese conceito. From a source of medium confidence.
No related word is recorded for this word.