| 释义 |
conceivable, a.|kənˈsiːvəb(ə)l|
Also 6–7 conceiveable.
[f. conceive v. + -able.]
†1. That can be received or taken in. Obs. (Cf. conceive 5, quot. 1587.)
1586T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. (1589) i. 71 That..we might finde therein apt and conceiveable foode.
2. That can be conceived, imagined, or thought of; imaginable, supposable.
Often (like imaginable) an emphatic equivalent for ‘just credible’, ‘at all credible’ (of statements, etc.); also used to strengthen all, any, etc. in the sense ‘all or any that can be even imagined or thought of’; cf. ‘any mortal thing’.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xxi. 157 That he remained ignorant of this account it is not easily conceivable. 1656tr. Hobbes' Elem. Philos. (1839) 81 Such things as have some conceivable cause. 1802Paley Nat. Theol. xxvii. (1819) 481 A particle..minuter than all assignable, all conceivable dimension. 1858Mansel Bampton Lect. ii. (ed. 4) 32 Consciousness..is only conceivable as a relation. 1867Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) I. vi. 450 It is just conceivable that Duncan refused homage to Cnut. 1879McCarthy Own Times II. xxviii. 327 He never seemed to have a moment's doubt on any conceivable question.
b. as n. A conceivable thing.
1659H. More Immort. Soul (1662) 61 These are the first conceivables in Matter. 1865Mill Exam. Hamilton 64 Inconceivables are incessantly becoming Conceivables as our experience becomes enlarged. |