Verb

(en-verb)

To interpret or explain the meaning of something.

The world must construe''' according to its wits; this court must '''construe according to the law.

, 1954

(grammar) To analyze the grammatical structure of a clause or sentence.

*

Thus, in a sentence such as:
(113)      John considers [_S Fred'' to be too sure of ''himself'']
the italicised Reflexive ''himself'' can only be construed''' with ''Fred'', not with ''John'': this follows from our assumption that non-subject Reflexives must have an antecedent within their own S. Notice, however, that in a sentence such as:
(114)      ''John'' seems to me [_S — to have perjured ''himself'']
''himself'' must be '''construed with ''John .

To translate.

Verb

(conceiv)

To develop an idea; to form in the mind; to plan; to devise; to originate.

* 1606 , , Shakespeare, II-4

We shall, / As I conceive the journey, be at the Mount / Before you, Lepidus.

* Gibbon

It was among the ruins of the Capitol that I first conceived the idea of a work which has amused and exercised near twenty years of my life.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=3 , passage=Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.}}

To understand (someone).

* Nathaniel Hawthorne

I conceive you.

* Jonathan Swift

You will hardly conceive him to have been bred in the same climate.

(senseid)(intransitive, or, transitive) To become pregnant.

* Bible, Luke i. 36

She hath also conceived a son in her old age.