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.

The state of being conceived. Joy had the like conception in our eyes.

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.

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.

Purpose conceived; conception with reference to the performance of an act.

Apprehension; knowledge. And as if beasts conceived what reason were, and that conception should distinctly show.

Conceit; affected sentiment, or thought.1i He is too full of conceptions, points of epigram, and witticisms.