All 9 Uses of
conceive
in
Northanger Abbey
- Her manners showed good sense and good breeding; they were neither shy nor affectedly open; and she seemed capable of being young, attractive, and at a ball without wanting to fix the attention of every man near her, and without exaggerated feelings of ecstatic delight or inconceivable vexation on every little trifling occurrence.†
Chpt 8inconceivable = totally unlikely or impossible to understandstandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in inconceivable means not and reverses the meaning of conceivable. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- It was inconceivable, incredible, impossible!†
Chpt 9 *
- And she would neither believe her own watch, nor her brother's, nor the servant's; she would believe no assurance of it founded on reason or reality, till Morland produced his watch, and ascertained the fact; to have doubted a moment longer then would have been equally inconceivable, incredible, and impossible; and she could only protest, over and over again, that no two hours and a half had ever gone off so swiftly before, as Catherine was called on to confirm; Catherine could not tell a falsehood even to please Isabella; but the latter was spared the misery of her friend's dissenting voice, by not waiting for her answer.†
Chpt 9
- Is not it inconceivable, Henry?†
Chpt 25
- She is netting herself the sweetest cloak you can conceive.†
Chpt 6
- How can you be so teasing; only conceive, my dear Catherine, what your brother wants me to do.†
Chpt 8
- You talked of expected horrors in London—and instead of instantly conceiving, as any rational creature would have done, that such words could relate only to a circulating library, she immediately pictured to herself a mob of three thousand men assembling in St. George's Fields, the Bank attacked, the Tower threatened, the streets of London flowing with blood, a detachment of the Twelfth Light Dragoons (the hopes of the nation) called up from Northampton to quell the insurgents, and the gallant Captain Frederick Tilney, in the moment of charging at the head of his troop, knocked off his horse by a brickbat from an upper window.†
Chpt 14
- Maria desired no greater pleasure than to speak of it; and Catherine immediately learnt that it had been altogether the most delightful scheme in the world, that nobody could imagine how charming it had been, and that it had been more delightful than anybody could conceive.†
Chpt 15
- I believe if I could see you I should not mind the rest, for you are dearer to me than anybody can conceive.†
Chpt 27
Definitions:
-
(1)
(conceive as in: conceive the idea) to originate, understand, or imagine
-
(2)
(conceive as in: conceived their first child) become pregnant or fertilize an egg