conjure

See also: conjuré

English

Etymology

From Middle English conjuren, from Old French conjurer, from Latin coniūrō (“I swear together; conspire”), from con- (“with, together”) + iūro (“I swear or take an oath”).

Pronunciation

Senses relating to magic tricks and imagination:
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌn.d͡ʒə(ɹ)/, /ˈkɒn.d͡ʒə(ɹ)/
  - Audio (Southern England) (file)
- (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑn.d͡ʒɚ/
- Rhymes: -ʌndʒə(ɹ), -ɒndʒə(ɹ)
Senses relating to religious or solemn actions:
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kənˈd͡ʒʊə(ɹ)/
  - Audio (Southern England) (file)
- (General American) IPA^(key): /kənˈd͡ʒʊɚ/

Verb

conjure (third-person singular simple present conjures, present participle conjuring, simple past and past participle conjured)

(intransitive) To perform magic tricks.
He started conjuring at the age of 15, and is now a famous stage magician.
(transitive) To summon (a devil, etc.) using supernatural power.
(intransitive, archaic) To practice black magic.
- 1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 7:
  "Thou great Norman lump!" he muttered. "If I conjure till Doomsday, I cannot make thee gold."
(transitive, archaic) To enchant or bewitch.
(transitive) To evoke. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
(transitive) To imagine or picture in the mind.
- 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter V, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. , volume I, London: Henry Colburn, , published 1842, →OCLC, page 51:
  There was a deep silence, while Helen's vivid fancy conjured up the scene. She knew the small neat room—she had been with Mrs. Palmer to see it; the cheerful garden filled with flowers, the hum of the distant play-ground, the rosy clusters of an acacia-tree, whose branches almost came in at the window;...
Synonyms: envisage, imagine, picture, visualize
(transitive, archaic) To make an urgent request to; to appeal to or beseech.
- 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. , London: J Tonson, , published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene iv, page 2:
  I conjure you, let him know, / Whate'er was done against him, Cato did it.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
  Stammering out something, I knew not what, I rolled away from him against the wall, and then conjured him, whoever or whatever he might be, to keep quiet, and let me get up and light the lamp again.
(intransitive, obsolete) To conspire or plot.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:
  Drew after him the third part of Heaven's sons / Conjured against the Highest.