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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…

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.

The act of carrying young in the womb from conception to delivery; pregnancy.

aid of things); as, a grand monarch; a grand lord; a grand general; a grand view; a grand conception. They are the highest models of expression, the unapproached masters of the grand style. M. Arnold.

years or judgment. I might be angry with the officious zeal which supposes that its green conceptions can instruct my gray hairs. Sir W. Scott.

Relating to that kind of homology or symmetry, the mathematical conception of organic form, in which all axes are equal. See under Promorphology.

A general notion, or a conception formed by generalization. Alice had not the slightest idea what latitude was. L. Caroll.

Existing in idea or thought; conceptional; intellectual; mental; as, ideal knowledge.

Conception of the ideal; imagery.

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

ence; deduction; conclusion. Fraudulent deductions or inconsequent illations from a false conception of things. Sir T. Browne.

A representation 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.

ve the name of the "comparative." Sir W. Hamilton. The power of the mind to decompose its conceptions, and to recombine the elements of them at its pleasure, is called its faculty of imagination. I. Taylor. The business of conception is to present us with an exact transcript of what we have felt or perceived. But we ha…

To form images or conceptions; to conceive; to devise.

One who forms ideas or conceptions; one who contrives. Bacon.

One more immaculate. Denham. Thou sheer, immaculate and silver 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.

equate; unequal to the purpose; insufficient; deficient; as, inadequate resources, power, conceptions, representations, etc. Dryden. -- In*ad"e*quate*ly, adv. -- In*ad"e*quate*ness, n.