con·ceit   (kən-sēt')    n.   A favorable and especially unduly high opinion of one's own abilities or worth. An ingenious or witty turn of phrase or thought. A fanciful poetic image, especially an elaborate or exaggerated comparison. A poem or passage consisting of such an image. The result of intellectual activity; a thought or an opinion. A fanciful thought or idea. A fancy article; a knickknack. An extravagant, fanciful, and elaborate construction or structure: "An eccentric addition to the lobby is a life-size wooden horse, a 19th century conceit" (Mimi Sheraton). The result of intellectual activity; a thought or an opinion. A fanciful thought or idea. A fancy article; a knickknack. An extravagant, fanciful, and elaborate construction or structure: "An eccentric addition to the lobby is a life-size wooden horse, a 19th century conceit" (Mimi Sheraton). A fancy article; a knickknack. An extravagant, fanciful, and elaborate construction or structure: "An eccentric addition to the lobby is a life-size wooden horse, a 19th century conceit" (Mimi Sheraton). tr.v.   con·ceit·ed, con·ceit·ing, con·ceits Chiefly British To take a fancy to. Obsolete To understand; conceive. [Middle English, mind, conception, from Anglo-Norman conceite, from Late Latin conceptus; see concept.] Synonyms: These nouns denote excessive high regard for oneself: boasting that reveals conceit; imperturbable egoism; arrogance and egotism that were obvious from her actions; narcissism that shut out everyone else; wounded his vanity by looking in the mirror. Antonym: humility

Conceit

Con*ceit"\, n. [Through French, fr. L. conceptus a conceiving, conception, fr. concipere to conceive: cf. OF. p. p. nom. conciez conceived. See Conceive, and cf. Concept, Deceit.]

1. 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.

2. Faculty of conceiving ideas; mental faculty; apprehension; as, a man of quick conceit. [Obs.]

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. --Sir P. Sidney.

3. Quickness of apprehension; active imagination; lively fancy.

His wit's as thick as Tewksbury mustard; there's more conceit in him than is in a mallet. --Shak.

4. A fanciful, odd, or extravagant notion; a quant fancy; an unnatural or affected conception; a witty thought or turn of expression; a fanciful device; a whim; a quip.

On his way to the gibbet, a freak took him in the head to go off with a conceit. --L'Estrange.

Some to conceit alone their works confine, And glittering thoughts struck out at every line. --Pope.

Tasso is full of conceits . . . which are not only below the dignity of heroic verse but contrary to its nature. --Dryden.

5. An overweening idea of one's self; vanity.

Plumed with conceit he calls aloud. --Cotton.

6. Design; pattern. [Obs.] --Shak.

In conceit with, in accord with; agreeing or conforming.

Out of conceit with, not having a favorable opinion of; not pleased with; as, a man is out of conceit with his dress.

To put [one] out of conceit with, to make one indifferent to a thing, or in a degree displeased with it.

conceit 

conceit

figure of speech, usually a simile or metaphor, that forms an extremely ingenious or fanciful parallel between apparently dissimilar or incongruous objects or situations. The Petrarchan conceit, which was especially popular with Renaissance writers of sonnets, is a hyperbolic comparison made generally by a suffering lover of his beautiful and cruel mistress to some physical object-e.g., a tomb, the ocean, the sun. The metaphysical conceit, associated with the Metaphysical poets of the 17th century, is a more intricate and intellectual device. It usually sets up an analogy between one entity's spiritual qualities and an object in the physical world and sometimes controls the whole structure of the poem. For example, in the following stanzas from "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," John Donne compares two lovers' souls to a draftsman's compass:If they be two, they are two soAs stiffe twin compasses are two,Thy soule the fixt foot, makes no showTo move, but doth, if the'other doe.And though it in the center sit,Yet when the other far doth rome,It leanes, and hearkens after it,And growes erect, as that comes home

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