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impressions; that is, as stated by Max Müller, the creative faculty gave to each general conception as it thrilled for the first time through the brain a phonetic expression; -- jocosely so called from the analogy of the sound of a bell induced by the stroke of the clapper.

onformity to ourselves. Milton. Disagreement and disconformity betwixt the speech and the conception of the mind. Hakewill.

; to diminish in size. Strange power of the world that, the moment we enter it, our great conceptions dwarf. Beaconsfield.

nd which is developed by germination. In embryo, in an incipient or undeveloped state; in conception, but not yet executed. "The company little suspected what a noble work I had then in embryo." Swift.

To sear; to dry up. [Obs.] Ensear thy fertile and conceptious womb. Shak.

An actuality; a conception completely actualized, in distinction from mere potential existence.

A real being, whether in thought (as an ideal conception) or in fact; being; essence; existence. Self-subsisting entities, such as our own personality. Shairp. Fortune is no real entity, . . . but a mere relative signification. Bentley.

Pertaining to Epictetus, the Roman Stoic philosopher, whose conception of life was to be passionless under whatever circumstances.

Capacity of a concept or general term to include a greater or smaller number of objects; -- correlative of intension. The law is that the intension of our knowledge is in the inverse ratio of its extension. Sir W. Hamilton. The extension of [the term] plant is greater than that of geranium, because it includes more obj…

To lessen; to palliate; to lessen or weaken the force of; to diminish the conception of, as crime, guilt, faults, ills, accusations, etc.; -- opposed to aggravate. But fortune there extenuates the crime. Dryden. Let us extenuate, conceal, adorn the unpleasing reality. I. Taylor.

el has a false bearing. -- False cadence, an imperfect or interrupted cadence. -- False conception (Med.), an abnormal conception in which a mole, or misshapen fleshy mass, is produced instead of a properly organized fetus. -- False croup (Med.), a spasmodic affection of the larynx attended with the symptoms of memb…

gularity of exercise; -- said of the mind or of thought. Here indeed the power of disinct conception of space and distance falters. I. Taylor.

An image or representation of anything formed in the mind; conception; thought; idea; conceit. How now, my lord ! why do you keep alone, Of sorriest fancies your companoins making Shak.

Fancy; imagination; especially, a whimsical or fanciful conception; a vagary of the imagination; whim; caprice; humor. Is not this something more than fantasy Shak. A thousand fantasies Being to throng into my memory. Milton.

A method of analysis developed by Newton, and based on the conception of all magnitudes as generated by motion, and involving in their changes the notion of velocity or rate of change. Its results are the same as those of the differential and integral calculus, from which it differs little except in notation and logica…

That assemblage or disposition of qualities which makes a conception, or that internal constitution which makes an existing thing to be what it is; -- called essential or substantial form, and contradistinguished from matter; hence, active or formative nature; law of being or activity; subjectively viewed, an idea; obj…

The spore cases or conceptacles of flowerless plants, as of ferns, mosses, algae, etc., with the spores contained in them.

in color, and produce oöspores which are not fertilized until they have escaped from the conceptacle. The common rockweeds and the gulfweed (Sargassum) are fucoid in character.

To derive or deduce (a general conception, or a general principle) from particulars. A mere conclusion generalized from a great multitude of facts. Coleridge.

than a species; a precisely defined and exactly divided class; one of the five predicable conceptions, or sorts of terms.