CONCEIVE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Conceive

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/kənsˈiv/ Listen

verb

Conceive v. t. (past & past part. conceived; pres. part. conceiving)

1.

To receive into the womb and begin to breed; to begin the formation of the embryo of. "She hath also conceived a son in her old age."

2.

To form in the mind; to plan; to devise; to generate; to originate; as, to conceive a purpose, plan, hope. "It was among the ruins of the Capitol that I first conceived the idea of a work which has amused and exercised near twenty years of my life." "Conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood."

3.

To apprehend by reason or imagination; to take into the mind; to know; to imagine; to comprehend; to understand. "I conceive you." "O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart Cannot conceive nor name thee!" "You will hardly conceive him to have been bred in the same climate."

Synonyms: To apprehend; imagine; suppose; understand; comprehend; believe; think.

Conceive v. i.

1.

To have an embryo or fetus formed in the womb; to breed; to become pregnant. "A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son."

2.

To have a conception, idea, or opinion; think; with of. "Conceive of things clearly and distinctly in their own natures."

See images of 'Conceive'

Etymology of 'Conceive'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Conceive" Quotes from Famous Books

... down to us under the names of Suasoriae and Controversiae. They are a series of declamatory arguments on both sides, respecting a number of historical or purely imaginary subjects; and it would be impossible to conceive any reading more utterly unprofitable. But the elder Seneca was steeped to the lips in an artificial rhetoric; and these highly elaborated arguments, invented in order to sharpen the faculties for purposes ...

— Seekers after God • Frederic William Farrar

... can realise the suspicion of the deaf, nor can any one who is not subject to attacks like mine conceive the doubts with which a man so cursed views those who have been active about him while the ...

— Dark Hollow • Anna Katharine Green

... death to life, and saved us that were damned: which great benefit we cannot well consider, unless we do remember what we were of ourselves before we meddled with him or his laws; and the more we know our feeble nature, and set less by it, the more we shall conceive and know in our hearts what God hath done for us; and the more we know what God hath done for us, the less we shall set by ourselves, and the more we shall love and please God: so that in no condition we shall either know ourselves or God, except we do utterly confess ourselves ...

— Sermons on the Card and Other Discourses • Hugh Latimer

... the German stock that the growth has the foliage and coloring of a new plant. One set of frescoes, representing the climate and scenery of Greece, had on me a peculiar and magical effect. Alas! there never has been the Greece that we conceive; we see it under the soft, purple veil of distance, like an Alpine valley embraced by cloudy mountains; but there was the same coarse dust and debris of ordinary life there as with us. The true Arcadia lies beyond the grave. The ...

— Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands V2 • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... that have been long suppressed. One thing was plain enough; Tom thought there was somebody to hear, whether there were or not. In fact, St. Clare felt himself borne, on the tide of his faith and feeling, almost to the gates of that heaven he seemed so vividly to conceive. It seemed to bring ...

— Uncle Tom's Cabin • Harriet Beecher Stowe

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