conceited

English

Alternative forms

• conceipted (obsolete)

Etymology 1

From conceit +‎ -ed.

Adjective

conceited (comparative more conceited or (informal) conceiteder, superlative most conceited or (informal) conceitedest)

1. Having an excessively favourable opinion of one's abilities, appearance, etc.; egotistical and vain.
   • c. 1732, Jonathan Swift, Epistle to a Lady:

     If you think me too conceited / Or to passion quickly heated.

   • 1692, Richard Bentley, (please specify the sermon), London: , published 1692–1693:

     Conceited of their own wit, and science, and politeness.

   • 1877, Emma Jane Worboise, “The New Evangeline”, in The Grey House at Endlestone, London: James Clarke and Co., ; Hodder and Stoughton, , →OCLC, page 480:

     And another asked me if I had come to get a Canadian sweetheart; and a third, one of the impudentest, most conceitedest fellows I ever did set eyes upon, nudged me, so that I spilled my coffee all over my second-best damask-silk apron—the one with bugle fringe, you know, Miss Capel—and says he, ‘Is it a case of Barkis is willin'?'

2. (rhetoric, literature) Having an ingenious expression or metaphorical idea, especially in extended form or used as a literary or rhetorical device.
   • 2006, A. J. Smith, Metaphysical Wit‎, page 20:

     Conceited wit showed its character towards the end of the fifteenth century in the work of poets who made it their aim to exercise their hearers' minds with cleaver plays of metaphor and ingenious reasoning.

3. (obsolete) Endowed with fancy or imagination.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), [William Shakespeare], Romeo and Juliet.  (First Quarto), London: Iohn Danter, published 1597, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     AN EXCELLENT conceited Tragedie OF Romeo and Iuliet. As it hath been often (with great applause) plaid publiquely

   • 1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, , London: Adam Islip, →OCLC:

     He was […] pleasantly conceited, and sharp of wit.

4. (obsolete) Curiously contrived or designed; fanciful.
   • 1644 November 20 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, , 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, ; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, , published 1819, →OCLC:

     A conceited chair to sleep in.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:arrogant

Derived terms

• conceited as a barber's cat
• conceitedly
• conceitedness
• self-conceited

Translations

Etymology 2

See conceit (verb).

Verb

conceited

1. simple past and past participle of conceit