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CONCEIT
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The trait of being unduly vain and conceited; false pride
Synonyms:
conceit; conceitedness; vanity
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("conceit" is a kind of...):
trait (a distinguishing feature of your personal nature)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "conceit"):
narcism; narcissism; self-love (an exceptional interest in and admiration for yourself)
boastfulness; vainglory (outspoken conceit)
egotism; self-importance; swelled head (an exaggerated opinion of your own importance)
posturing (adopting a vain conceited posture)
Antonym:
humility (a disposition to be humble; a lack of false pride)
Sense 2
Meaning:
An artistic device or effect
Example:
the architect's brilliant conceit was to build the house around the tree
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("conceit" is a kind of...):
device (something in an artistic work designed to achieve a particular effect)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A witty or ingenious turn of phrase
Example:
he could always come up with some inspired off-the-wall conceit
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("conceit" is a kind of...):
turn of expression; turn of phrase (a distinctive spoken or written expression)
Sense 4
Meaning:
An elaborate poetic image or a far-fetched comparison of very dissimilar things
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("conceit" is a kind of...):
figure; figure of speech; image; trope (language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Feelings of excessive pride
Synonyms:
amour propre; conceit; self-love; vanity
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("conceit" is a kind of...):
pride; pridefulness (a feeling of self-respect and personal worth)
Context examples:
For indeed, while I was in that prince’s country, I could never endure to look in a glass, after mine eyes had been accustomed to such prodigious objects, because the comparison gave me so despicable a conceit of myself.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
In addition to what has been already said of Catherine Morland's personal and mental endowments, when about to be launched into all the difficulties and dangers of a six weeks' residence in Bath, it may be stated, for the reader's more certain information, lest the following pages should otherwise fail of giving any idea of what her character is meant to be, that her heart was affectionate; her disposition cheerful and open, without conceit or affectation of any kind—her manners just removed from the awkwardness and shyness of a girl; her person pleasing, and, when in good looks, pretty—and her mind about as ignorant and uninformed as the female mind at seventeen usually is.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
But while she wondered at the difference of the two young men, she did not find that the emptiness of conceit of the one, put her out of all charity with the modesty and worth of the other.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
I had thought you peculiarly free from wilfulness of temper, self-conceit, and every tendency to that independence of spirit which prevails so much in modern days, even in young women, and which in young women is offensive and disgusting beyond all common offence.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
I think him a very handsome young man, and his manners are precisely what I like and approve—so truly the gentleman, without the least conceit or puppyism.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Challenger's conceit is too colossal to allow him to be really annoyed.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Jo took him at his word, for she coolly turned round and studied him—a proceeding which would have much surprised him, had he known it, for the worthy Professor was very humble in his own conceit.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Above all, I found that the most professing men were the greatest objects of interest; and that their conceit, their vanity, their want of excitement, and their love of deception (which many of them possessed to an almost incredible extent, as their histories showed), all prompted to these professions, and were all gratified by them.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
The captain understood my raillery very well, and merrily replied with the old English proverb, that he doubted mine eyes were bigger than my belly, for he did not observe my stomach so good, although I had fasted all day; and, continuing in his mirth, protested he would have gladly given a hundred pounds, to have seen my closet in the eagle’s bill, and afterwards in its fall from so great a height into the sea; which would certainly have been a most astonishing object, worthy to have the description of it transmitted to future ages: and the comparison of Phaëton was so obvious, that he could not forbear applying it, although I did not much admire the conceit.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
