From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishconceitcon‧ceit /kənˈsiːt/ noun 1 [uncountable]PROUD an attitude that shows you have too high an opinion of your own abilities or importance SYN conceitedness The conceit of the woman!2 [countable]AL technical an unusual way of showing or describing something in a play, film, work of art etc His sermons were full of puns and conceits.
Examples from the Corpus
conceit• The boar with a flower in his mouth is just a conceit and an obsession.• After scoring the winning goal he almost danced along the road in his satisfaction and conceit.• What colossal conceit, what sheer hubris, in the idea that he could have both!• The movie's design conceit uses color for the dream, and black and white for the real world.• From their callous hearts comes iniquity; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.• I got so sick of his conceit that I threw the damn trophy out.• More literary games, but here intellectual conceits are mixed with bawdy farce.• Had Gabriel publicly insulted him in his cups one night in the Raven, fatally offending that pompous conceit?• His personal defects are a somewhat hostile reserve, conceit, and a narrow outlook...• It sounds like the conceit of a Disney movie.• His own marriage was a disastrous threat to this conceit of mastery.Origin conceit (1600-1700) conceit “thought, opinion” ((14-19 centuries)), from conceive, on the model of deceive, deceit 