Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CON-CEP'TION, n. [L. conceptio; from concipio. See Conceive. It. concezione; Sp. concepcion; Fr. conception.]

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. Gen. iii
2. The state of being conceived. Joy had the like conception in our eyes. – Shak.
3. In pneumatology, apprehension of any 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. – Kames. Stewart. Encyc.
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. – Shak.
6. Apprehension; knowledge. And as if beasts conceived what reason were, / And that conception should distinctly show. – Davies.
7. Conceit; affected sentiment, or thought. He is too full of conceptions, points of epigram, and witticisms – Dryden.