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enice itself. Addison. My good behavior had so far gained on the emperor, that I began to conceive hopes of liberty. Swift.

A being conceived of as possessing supernatural power, and to be propitiated by sacrifice, worship, etc.; a divinity; a deity; an object of worship; an idol. He maketh a god, and worshipeth it. Is. xliv. 15. The race of Israel . . . bowing lowly down To bestial gods. Milton.

erished malice, enmity, or dislike; ill will; an old cause of hatred or quarrel. Esau had conceived a mortal grudge and eumity against hie brother Jacob. South. The feeling may not be envy; it may not be imbittered by a grudge. I. Taylor.

of time, place, etc., under which it was written. -- The historic sense, the capacity to conceive and represent the unity and significance of a past era or age.

That which forms the basis of anything; underlying principle; a concept or mental entity conceived or treated as an existing being or thing.

To make into a distinct substance; to conceive or treat as an existing being; to hypostatize. [R.] The pressed Newtonians . . . refused to hypostasize the law of gravitation into an ether. Coleridge.

Hence: Any object apprehended, conceived, or thought of, by the mind; a notion, conception, or thought; the real object that is conceived or thought of. Whatsoever the mind perceives in itself, or as the immediate object of perception, thought, or undersanding, that I call idea. Locke.

A false notion or conception; a fallacy. Bacon. The idols of preconceived opinion. Coleridge.

tion of anything to the mind; a picture drawn by the fancy; a conception; an idea. Can we conceive Image of aught delightful, soft, or great Prior.

To form in the mind a notion or idea of; to form a mental image of; to conceive; to produce by the imagination. In the night, imagining some fear, How easy is a bush supposed a bear! Shak.

fountain. Shak. Immaculate conception (R. C. Ch.), the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin. -- Im*mac"u*late*ly, adv. -- Im*mac"u*late*ness, n.

To make pregnant; to cause to conceive; to render prolific; to get with child or young.

eing, resting, or moving within limits, or within circumstances or conditions of any kind conceived of as limiting, confining, or investing, either wholly or in part. In its different applications, it approaches some of the meanings of, and sometimes is interchangeable with, within, into, on, at, of, and among. It is u…

Not conceivable; incapable of being conceived by the mind; not explicable by the human intellect, or by any known principles or agencies; incomprehensible; as, it is inconceivable to us how the will acts in producing muscular motion. It is inconceivable to me that a spiritual substance should represent an extended figu…

Separate from; exclusive; irrespective. That obligation in general, under which we conceive ourselves bound to obey a law, independent of those resources which the law provides for its own enforcement. R. P. Ward.

hy and physics: A rule of being, operation, or change, so certain and constant that it is conceived of as imposed by the will of God or by some controlling authority; as, the law of gravitation; the laws of motion; the law heredity; the laws of thought; the laws of cause and effect; law of self-preservation.…

That which lies or is laid or is conceived of as having been laid or placed in its position; a row; a stratum; a layer; as, a lay of stone or wood. Addison. A viol should have a lay of wire strings below. Bacon.

ence, figuratively, a certain position, rank, standard, degree, quality, character, etc., conceived of as in one of several planes of different elevation. Providence, for the most part, sets us on a level. Addison. Somebody there of his own level. Swift. Be the fair level of thy actions laid As temperance wills and pru…

: The potential or animating principle, also, the period of duration, of anything that is conceived of as resembling a natural organism in structure or functions; as, the life of a state, a machine, or a book; authority is the life of government.

es of vision, which the assistance of glasses (casually at first lit on) has taught us to conceive. Locke. They shall light into atheistical company. South. And here we lit on Aunt Elizabeth, And Lilia with the rest. Tennyson.