conceive
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- conceave (obsolete)
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English conceyven, from Old French concevoir, conceveir, from Latin concipiō, concipere (“to take”), from con- (“together”) + capiō (“to take”). Compare deceive, perceive, receive.
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
conceive (third-person singular simple present conceives, present participle conceiving, simple past and past participle conceived)
- (transitive) To develop an idea; to form in the mind; to plan; to devise; to originate.
- c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals), page 4:
- We shall, / As I conceive the journey, be at the Mount / Before you, Lepidus.
- 1776, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], OCLC 995235880:
- 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.
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter III, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698:
- Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.
- (transitive) To understand (someone).
- 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 3, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, OCLC 223202227:
- I conceive you.
- 1731, Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation:
- You will hardly conceive him to have been bred in the same climate.
- (intransitive or transitive) To become pregnant (with).
- Assisted procreation can help those trying to conceive.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Luke 1:36:
- She hath also conceived a son in her old age.
- To generate or engender; to bring into being.
- 1887, H. Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure[1]:
- At the mouth of the cave we found a single litter with six bearers, all of them mutes, waiting, and with them I was relieved to see our old friend Billali, for whom I had conceived a sort of affection.
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
to develop an idea
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to understand someone
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to become pregnant
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Further reading[edit]
- “conceive” in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- “conceive” in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
Middle English[edit]
Verb[edit]
conceive
- Alternative form of conceyven
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