CONJURE

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does conjure mean? 

• CONJURE (verb)
  The verb CONJURE has 3 senses:

1. summon into action or bring into existence, often as if by magic

2. ask for or request earnestly

3. engage in plotting or enter into a conspiracy, swear together

  Familiarity information: CONJURE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONJURE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they conjure    ... he / she / it conjures   
Past simple: conjured   
Past participle: conjured   
-ing form: conjuring   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Summon into action or bring into existence, often as if by magic

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

arouse; bring up; call down; call forth; conjure; conjure up; evoke; invoke; put forward; raise; stir

Context example:

call down the spirits from the mountain

Hypernyms (to "conjure" is one way to...):

call up; summon (cause to become available for use, either literally or figuratively)

Verb group:

call forth; evoke; kick up; provoke (evoke or provoke to appear or occur)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "conjure"):

anathemise; anathemize; bedamn; beshrew; curse; damn; imprecate; maledict (wish harm upon; invoke evil upon)

bless (give a benediction to)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

conjuration (calling up a spirit or devil)

conjuration (a ritual recitation of words or sounds believed to have a magical effect)

conjurer (someone who performs magic tricks to amuse an audience)

conjuring (calling up a spirit or devil)

conjuror (someone who performs magic tricks to amuse an audience)

conjury (calling up a spirit or devil)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Ask for or request earnestly

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

adjure; beseech; bid; conjure; entreat; press

Context example:

The prophet bid all people to become good persons

Hypernyms (to "conjure" is one way to...):

plead (appeal or request earnestly)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody to INFINITIVE

Sense 3

Meaning:

Engage in plotting or enter into a conspiracy, swear together

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

cabal; complot; conjure; conspire; machinate

Context example:

They conspired to overthrow the government

Hypernyms (to "conjure" is one way to...):

plot (plan secretly, usually something illegal)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "conjure"):

coconspire (conspire together)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

 Context examples 

I walked up and down my room hastily and perturbed, while my imagination conjured up a thousand images to torment and sting me.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

But pray, Colonel, how came you to conjure out that I should be in town today?

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

All flushed and burning, she regretfully dismissed the conjured situation.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

For, coz, since all thoughts are things, you have but to think a pair of herrings, and then conjure up a pottle of milk wherewith to wash them down.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My conductor pressed me forward, conjuring me in a whisper “to give no offence, which would be highly resented;” and therefore I durst not so much as stop my nose.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I conjured him, incoherently, but in the most impassioned manner, not to abandon himself to this wildness, but to hear me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

They often speculated over his past, and tried to conjure up (from what they had read and heard) what his northland life had been.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

And again she earnestly conjured me to give up all thoughts of going out with her brother.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The Unquenchables had done their best to be worthy of the name, for like elves they had worked by night and conjured up a comical surprise.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Kalahari, the name conjures an arid, almost lifeless expanse, its red, iron oxide sands stretching to the horizon and beyond.

(Sleeping sands of the Kalahari awaken after more than 10,000 years, NSF)