Con-çēp'tion, n.
n. [Lat. conceptio, Fr. conception, Pr. conceptio, conception, Sp. concepcion, It. concezione.]
Sense 1. The act of conceiving; the first formation of the embryo of an animal.
I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. Gen. iii. 16.
Sense 2. The state of being conceived.
Joy had the like conception in our eyes. Shak.
Sense 3. The formation in the mind of an image, idea, or notion; apprehension.
Conception consists in a conscious act of the understanding, bringing any given object or impression into the same class with any number of other objects or impressions, by means of some character or characters common to them all. Coleridge.
Sense 4. The image, idea, or notion of any action or thing which is formed in the mind; an abstract general conception; a concept; a notion; a universal; a rational belief or judgment.
He [Herodotus] says that the sun draws or attracts the water; a metaphorical term obviously intended to denote some more general and abstract conception than that of the visible operation which the word primarily signifies. Whewell.
Sense 5. The power or faculty of apprehending or forming an idea in the mind; the power of recalling a past sensation or perception.
Under the article of conception, I shall confine myself to that faculty whose province it is to enable us to form a notion of past sensations, or of the objects of sense that we have formerly perceived. Stewart.
Sense 6. Conceit; affected sentiment or thought. [Obs.]
He is too full of conceptions, points of epigram, and witticisms. Dryden.