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 = Conceit = Definition: =__con⋅ceit:__= 1. an excessively favorable opinion of one's own ability, importance, wit, etc. 2. something that is conceived in the mind; a thought; idea: He jotted down the conceits of his idle hours.

3.. An elaborate comparison between two highly dissimilar things that are shown to have a relationship. It takes one subject and explores the metaphoric possibilities in the qualities associated with that subject. A recurring metaphor. 4. imagination; fancy.

5. a far-fetched or clever comparison

“Conceit”, meaning an extravagant figure of speech, comes from the Italian //concetto//, originally “a concept”, but by extension “a notion”, “a fancy”. //Concettismo//, the cultivation of ever more elaborately conceited poetry, was an Italian literary development that spread to the rest of Europe in the late Sixteenth and early Seventeenth Centuries. Usually a conceit takes the form of a far-fetched metaphor, simile or analogy.

A far-fetched simile or metaphor, a literary conceit occurs when the speaker compares two highly dissimilar things. In the following example from Act V of Shakespeare's "Richard II," the imprisoned King Richard compares his cell to the world in the following line:

"I have been studying how I may compare this prison where I live unto the world..."