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Conceit vs Complacency - What's the difference?

conceit | complacency |

As nouns the difference between conceit and complacency

is that conceit is something conceived in the mind; an idea, a thought while complacency is a feeling of contented self-satisfaction, especially when unaware of upcoming trouble.

As a verb conceit

is to form an idea; to think.

conceit

English

Alternative forms

* (obsolete)

Noun

  • (obsolete) Something conceived in the mind; an idea, a thought.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • In laughing, there ever procedeth a conceit of somewhat ridiculous.
  • * Bible, Proverbs xxvi. 12
    • a man wise in his own conceit
  • The faculty of conceiving ideas; mental faculty; apprehension.
    • a man of quick conceit
  • * Sir Philip Sidney
    • How often, alas! did her eyes say unto me that they loved! and yet I, not looking for such a matter, had not my conceit open to understand them.
  • Quickness of apprehension; active imagination; lively fancy.
  • * Shakespeare
    • His wit's as thick as Tewksbury mustard; there is no more conceit in him than is in a mallet.
  • (obsolete) Opinion, (neutral) judgment.
  • * 1499 , (John Skelton), The Bowge of Courte :
    • By him that me boughte, than quod Dysdayne, / I wonder sore he is in suche cenceyte .
  • (countable) A novel or fanciful idea; a whim.
  • * L'Estrange
    • On his way to the gibbet, a freak took him in the head to go off with a conceit .
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Some to conceit alone their works confine, / And glittering thoughts struck out at every line.
  • * Dryden
    • Tasso is full of conceits which are not only below the dignity of heroic verse but contrary to its nature.
  • (countable, rhetoric, literature) An ingenious expression or metaphorical idea, especially in extended form or used as a literary or rhetorical device.
  • (uncountable) Overly high self-esteem; vain pride; hubris.
  • * Cotton
    • Plumed with conceit he calls aloud.
  • Design; pattern.
    • (Shakespeare)

    Derived terms

    * conceited * conceitedly * conceitedness * self-conceit

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To form an idea; to think.
  • * 1643 : , The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce
    • Those whose vulgar apprehensions conceit but low of matrimonial purposes.
  • (obsolete) To conceive.
  • * South
    • The strong, by conceiting themselves weak, are therebly rendered as inactive as if they really were so.
  • * Shakespeare
    • One of two bad ways you must conceit me, / Either a coward or a flatterer.

    External links

    * * *

    complacency

    English

    Alternative forms

    * complacence

    Noun

    (complacencies)
  • A feeling of contented self-satisfaction, especially when unaware of upcoming trouble.
  • *
    • There was something pathetic in his concentration as if his complacency , more acute than of old, was not enough to him any more. When, almost immediately, the telephone rang inside and the butler left the porch Daisy seized upon the momentary interruption and leaned toward me.
  • * Addison
    • Others proclaim the infirmities of a great man with satisfaction and complacency , if they discover none of the like in themselves.
  • An instance of self-satisfaction.

    • Related terms

    * complacent