conceit

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A favorable and especially unduly high opinion of one's own abilities or worth.
2. n. An ingenious or witty turn of phrase or thought.
3. n. A fanciful poetic image, especially an elaborate or exaggerated comparison.
4. n. A poem or passage consisting of such an image.
5. n. The result of intellectual activity; a thought or an opinion.
6. n. A fanciful thought or idea.
7. n. A fancy article; a knickknack.
8. n. An extravagant, fanciful, and elaborate construction or structure: "An eccentric addition to the lobby is a life-size wooden horse, a 19th century conceit” ( Mimi Sheraton).
9. v. Chiefly British To take a fancy to.
10. v. Obsolete To understand; conceive.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. That which is conceived, imagined, or formed in the mind; conception; idea; thought; image.
2. n. The faculty of conceiving; understanding; apprehension.
3. n. Opinion; estimation; view or belief.
4. n. An undue opinion; a baseless fancy; a crotchety notion.
5. n. An exaggerated estimate of one's own mental ability, or of the importance or value of what one has done; an overvaluation of one's own acuteness, wit, learning, etc.; self-conceit: as, a man inflated with conceit.
6. n. A witty, happy, or ingenious thought or expression; a quaint or humorous fancy; wit; humor; ingenuity; especially, in modern usage, a quaint or odd thought; a thought or expression intended to be striking or poetical, but rather far-fetched, insipid, or pedantic.
7. n. A fanciful or ingenious device or invention.
8. n. A trifle; a dainty; a kickshaw.
9. n. Synonyms Vagary, whim, illusion.
10. n. Pride, Vanity, etc. (see egotism), self-sufficiency, self-complacency.
11. To conceive; imagine; think; suppose; form an idea of.
12. Reflexively, to imagine; fancy; think; believe: implying error.
13. To cause to imagine.
14. To form a notion; have an opinion; conceive.

Wiktionary

1. n. Overly high self-esteem; vain pride; hubris.
2. n. Something conceived in the mind; a conception; a notion; an idea; a thought.
3. n. A novel or fanciful idea; a whim.
4. n. A device of analogy consisting of an extended metaphor.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. That which is conceived, imagined, or formed in the mind; idea; thought; image; conception.
2. n. Faculty of conceiving ideas; mental faculty; apprehension.
3. n. Quickness of apprehension; active imagination; lively fancy.
4. n. A fanciful, odd, or extravagant notion; a quant fancy; an unnatural or affected conception; a witty thought or turn of expression; a fanciful device; a whim; a quip.
5. n. An overweening idea of one's self; vanity.
6. n. Design; pattern.
7. v. To conceive; to imagine.
8. v. To form an idea; to think.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an artistic device or effect
2. n. the trait of being unduly vain and conceited; false pride
3. n. feelings of excessive pride
4. n. a witty or ingenious turn of phrase
5. n. an elaborate poetic image or a far-fetched comparison of very dissimilar things