*imagin*

a. [ L. imaginabilis: cf. F. imaginable. ] Capable of being imagined; conceivable. [ 1913 Webster ]

Men sunk into the greatest darkness imaginable. Tillotson.

-- Im*ag"i*na*ble*ness, n. -- Im*ag"i*na*bly, adv. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. imaginalis. ] 1. Characterized by imagination; imaginative; also, given to the use or rhetorical figures or imagins. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) Of or pertaining to an imago. [ 1913 Webster ]

Imaginal disks (Zool.), masses of hypodermic cells, carried by the larvæ of some insects after leaving the egg, from which masses the wings and legs of the adult are subsequently formed. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. imaginans, p. pr. of imaginari: cf. F. imaginant. ] Imagining; conceiving. [ Obs. ] Bacon. -- n. An imaginer. [ Obs. ] Glanvill. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. In a imaginary manner; in imagination. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state or quality of being imaginary; unreality. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. imaginarius: cf. F. imaginaire. ] Existing only in imagination or fancy; not real; fancied; visionary; ideal. [ 1913 Webster ]

Wilt thou add to all the griefs I suffer
Imaginary ills and fancied tortures? Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

Imaginary calculus See under Calculus. --
Imaginary expression or
Imaginary quantity (Alg.), an algebraic expression which involves the impossible operation of taking the square root of a negative quantity; as, √-9, a + b √-1. --
Imaginary points,
lines,
surfaces, etc. (Geom.), points, lines, surfaces, etc., imagined to exist, although by reason of certain changes of a figure they have in fact ceased to have a real existence.

Syn. -- Ideal; fanciful; chimerical; visionary; fancied; unreal; illusive. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Alg.) An imaginary expression or quantity. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Imaginative. [ Obs. ] Holland. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. imaginacionum, F. imagination, fr. L. imaginatio. See Imagine. ] 1. The imagine-making power of the mind; the power to create or reproduce ideally an object of sense previously perceived; the power to call up mental imagines. [ 1913 Webster ]

Our simple apprehension of corporeal objects, if present, is sense; if absent, is imagination. Glanvill. [ 1913 Webster ]

Imagination is of three kinds: joined with belief of that which is to come; joined with memory of that which is past; and of things present, or as if they were present. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The representative power; the power to reconstruct or recombine the materials furnished by direct apprehension; the complex faculty usually termed the plastic or creative power; the fancy. [ 1913 Webster ]

The imagination of common language -- the productive imagination of philosophers -- is nothing but the representative process plus the process to which I would give the name of the “comparative.” Sir W. Hamilton. [ 1913 Webster ]

The power of the mind to decompose its conceptions, and to recombine the elements of them at its pleasure, is called its faculty of imagination. I. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

The business of conception is to present us with an exact transcript of what we have felt or perceived. But we have moreover a power of modifying our conceptions, by combining the parts of different ones together, so as to form new wholes of our creation. I shall employ the word imagination to express this power. Stewart. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The power to recombine the materials furnished by experience or memory, for the accomplishment of an elevated purpose; the power of conceiving and expressing the ideal. [ 1913 Webster ]

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact . . .
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven,
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A mental image formed by the action of the imagination as a faculty; a conception; a notion. Shak.

Syn. -- Conception; idea; conceit; fancy; device; origination; invention; scheme; design; purpose; contrivance. -- Imagination, Fancy. These words have, to a great extent, been interchanged by our best writers, and considered as strictly synonymous. A distinction, however, is now made between them which more fully exhibits their nature. Properly speaking, they are different exercises of the same general power -- the plastic or creative faculty. Imagination consists in taking parts of our conceptions and combining them into new forms and images more select, more striking, more delightful, more terrible, etc., than those of ordinary nature. It is the higher exercise of the two. It creates by laws more closely connected with the reason; it has strong emotion as its actuating and formative cause; it aims at results of a definite and weighty character. Milton's fiery lake, the debates of his Pandemonium, the exquisite scenes of his Paradise, are all products of the imagination. Fancy moves on a lighter wing; it is governed by laws of association which are more remote, and sometimes arbitrary or capricious. Hence the term fanciful, which exhibits fancy in its wilder flights. It has for its actuating spirit feelings of a lively, gay, and versatile character; it seeks to please by unexpected combinations of thought, startling contrasts, flashes of brilliant imagery, etc. Pope's Rape of the Lock is an exhibition of fancy which has scarcely its equal in the literature of any country. -- “This, for instance, Wordsworth did in respect of the words ‘imagination' and ‘fancy.' Before he wrote, it was, I suppose, obscurely felt by most that in ‘imagination' there was more of the earnest, in ‘fancy' of the play of the spirit; that the first was a loftier faculty and gift than the second; yet for all this words were continually, and not without loss, confounded. He first, in the preface to his Lyrical Ballads, rendered it henceforth impossible that any one, who had read and mastered what he has written on the two words, should remain unconscious any longer of the important difference between them.” Trench. [ 1913 Webster ]

The same power, which we should call fancy if employed on a production of a light nature, would be dignified with the title of imagination if shown on a grander scale. C. J. Smith. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pertaining to, involving, or caused by, imagination. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Idealism. J. Grote. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ F. imaginatif. ] 1. Proceeding from, and characterized by, the imagination, generally in the highest sense of the word. [ 1913 Webster ]

In all the higher departments of imaginative art, nature still constitutes an important element. Mure. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Given to imagining; full of images, fancies, etc.; having a quick imagination; conceptive; creative. [ 1913 Webster ]

Milton had a highly imaginative, Cowley a very fanciful mind. Coleridge. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Unreasonably suspicious; jealous. [ Obs. ] Chaucer.

-- Im*ag"i*na*tive*ly, adv. -- Im*ag"i*na*tive*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. the capability of imagining; the power of imagination.
Syn. -- imagination, vision. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Imagined p. pr. & vb. n. Imagining. ] [ F. imaginer, L. imaginari, p. p. imaginatus, fr. imago image. See Image. ] 1. To form in the mind a notion or idea of; to form a mental image of; to conceive; to produce by the imagination. [ 1913 Webster ]

In the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear! Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To contrive in purpose; to scheme; to devise; to compass; to purpose. See Compass, v. t., 5. [ 1913 Webster ]

How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? Ps. lxii. 3. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To represent to one's self; to think; to believe. Shak.

Syn. -- To fancy; conceive; apprehend; think; believe; suppose; opine; deem; plan; scheme; devise. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To form images or conceptions; to conceive; to devise. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To think; to suppose. [ 1913 Webster ]

My sister is not so defenseless left
As you imagine. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. existing in the mind only; not real or actual; as, her imagined fame.
Syn. -- imaginary, notional. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. One who forms ideas or conceptions; one who contrives. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Imaginative. [ R. ] Chapman. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Unimaginable; inconceivable. [ R. ] Bp. Pearson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Medicine) a medical diagnostic procedure utilizing the phenomenon of nuclear magnetic resonance to generate images of internal parts of the body. It depends on the differential absorption of electromagnetic radiation by different types of living tissue in a magnetic field. It is complementary to X-ray imaging in that the softer tissue show more prominently in magnetic resonance images, rather than bone, as with X-rays. It is a non-invasive procedure, allowing such images to be obtained without penetration of the tissue by objects. It is abbreviated MRI. As with computerized tomography, the results are usually presented as images of sequential planar sections of that part of the body of concern to the physician. [ PJC ]

n. Wrong imagination; delusion. Bp. Hall. [ 1913 Webster ]