conceitnoun/kənˈsiːt/

• 1

  obsoleteSomething conceived in the mind; an idea, a thought.

  • In laughing, there ever procedeth a conceit of somewhat ridiculous.
  • a man wise in his own conceit
• 2

  The faculty of conceiving ideas; mental faculty; apprehension.

  • a man of quick conceit
  • How often, alas! did her eyes say unto me that they loved! and yet I, not looking for such a matter, had not my conceit open to understand them.
• 3

  Quickness of apprehension; active imagination; lively fancy.

  • His wit's as thick as Tewksbury mustard; there is no more conceit in him than is in a mallet.
• 4

  obsoleteOpinion, (neutral) judgment.

• 5

  archaicdialectalEsteem, favourable opinion.

  • By him that me boughte, than quod Dysdayne, / I wonder sore he is in suche cenceyte.
  • [G]ive him thy thanks for putting her into conceit with the sex that thou hast given her so much reason to execrate.
• 6

  A novel or fanciful idea; a whim.

  • On his way to the gibbet, a freak took him in the head to go off with a conceit.
  • Some to conceit alone their works confine, / And glitt'ring thoughts struck out at ev'ry line.
• 7

  literaturemediapublishingAn ingenious expression or metaphorical idea, especially in extended form or used as a literary or rhetorical device.

  • The “cyberspace” conceit allows him to dramatize computer hacking in nontechnical language, although I wonder how much his somewhat florid descriptions of the “bodiless exultation of cyberspace” will mean to readers who have not experienced the illusion of power that punching the keyboard of even a dinky little word-processor can give.
  • In the next and final stanza, Donne expands the conceit of world exploration to present us with a further distinction between the spirituality of the lovers and the “map reader” and “sea-discoverers.”
• 8

  Overly high self-esteem; vain pride; hubris.

  • Plum'd with conceit he calls aloud.

conceitverb/kənˈsiːt/

• 1

  obsoleteTo form an idea; to think.

  • Those whose […] vulgar apprehensions conceit but low of matrimonial purposes.
• 2

  obsoleteTo conceive.

  • [T]his Medicine he conceits worse than the Disesase.
  • That owls and ravens are ominous appearers, and presignifying unlucky events, as Christians yet conceit, was also an augurial conception.