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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. Luke i. 36.

One who conceives.

To preconceive; to imagine beforehand. [Obs.] Bacon.

To conceive wrongly; to interpret incorrectly; to receive a false notion of; to misjudge; to misapprehend. Those things which, for want of due consideration heretofore, they have misconceived. Hooker.

One who misconceives.

To conceive, or form an opinion of, beforehand; to form a previous notion or idea of. In a dead plain the way seemeth the longer, because the eye hath preconceived it shorter than the truth. Bacon.

Capable of being thought or conceived by itself alone; unconditioned; non-relative.

A property which is not essential; a nonessential; anything happening accidentally. He conceived it just that accidentals . . . should sink with the substance of the accusation. Fuller.

Precisely fixed; executed with care; careful. [Obs.] Those conceive the celestial bodies have more accurate influences upon these things below. Bacon.

To take hold of with the understanding, that is, to conceive in the mind; to become cognizant of; to understand; to recognize; to consider. This suspicion of Earl Reimund, though at first but a buzz, soon got a sting in the king's head, and he violently apprehended it. Fuller. The eternal laws, such as the heroic age a…

Capable of being apprehended or conceived. "Apprehensible by faith." Bp. Hall. -- Ap`*pre*hen"si*bly, adv.

The faculty by which ideas are conceived; understanding; as, a man of dull apprehension.

never meet it. Asymptotes may be straight lines or curves. A rectilinear asymptote may be conceived as a tangent to the curve at an infinite distance.

To conceive; to understand. [Obs.] brain not. Shak.

ne. -- Formal cause, the elements of a conception which make the conception or the thing conceived to be what it is; or the idea viewed as a formative principle and coöperating with the matter. -- Material cause, that of which anything is made. -- Proximate cause. See under Proximate. -- To make common cause with,…

Merely imaginary; fanciful; fantastic; wildly or vainly conceived; having, or capable of having, no existence except in thought; as, chimerical projects.

A company assembled, or conceived to assemble, about a central point of interest, or bound by a common tie; a class or division of society; a coterie; a set. As his name gradually became known, the circle of his acquaintance widened. Macaulay.

infer from observed facts; to conclude from premises. [Archaic.] Shak. Which sequence, I conceive, is very ill collected. Locke. To collect one's self, to recover from surprise, embarrassment, or fear; to regain self-control.

That which is conceived, imagined, or formed in the mind; idea; thought; image; conception. In laughing, there ever procedeth a conceit of somewhat ridiculous. Bacon. A man wise in his own conceit. Prov. xxvi. 12.

Capable of being conceived, imagined, or understood. "Any conceivable weight." Bp. Wilkins. It is not conceivable that it should be indeed that very person whose shape and voice it assumed. Atterbury. -- Con*ceiv"a*ble*ness, n. -- Con*ceiv"a*bly, adv.