conception

CONCEPTION, noun [Latin , See Conceive.] 1. The act of conceiving; the first formation of the embryo or fetus of an animal. I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception Genesis 3:16. 2. The state of being conceived. Joy had the like conception in our eyes. 3. In pneumatology, apprehension of nay thing by the mind; the act of conceiving in the mind; that mental act or combination of acts by which an idea or notion is formed of an absent object of perception, or of a sensation formerly felt. When we see an object with our eyes open, we have a perception of it; when the same object is presented to the mind with the eyes shut, in idea only or in memory, we have a conception of it. 4. conception may be sometimes used for the power of conceiving ideas, as when we say, a thing is not within our conception Some writers have defined conception as a distinct faculty of the mind; but it is considered by others as memory, and perhaps with propriety. 5. Purpose conceived; conception with reference to the performance of an act. 6. Apprehension; knowledge. And as if beasts conceived what reason were, and that conception should distinctly show. 7. Conceit; affected sentiment, or thought. He is too full of conceptions, points of epigram, and witticisms.