Emily Dickinson Lexicon

if, conj. [OE; subordinating conjunction.] (webplay: admit, affirmation, bread, chance, fact, give, God, grant, let, message, sentence, son, stones, suppose, uncertain, whether, whole).

1. [Introduces a condition] hoping; granting; supposing; imagining; let it be that.
2. [Introduces a possibility] whether; be it true; entertaining the possibility that.
3. Phrase. “As if”: [see as, conj.] seemingly; hypothetically like.