Obs. Also 5 congette, coniette; pa. t. coniecte. [ad. L. conjectā-re to cast together, conjecture, guess, conclude, infer, freq. of conjicĕre (ppl. stem conject-) to throw together, etc., f. con- together + jacĕre to throw. In sense 3, congette, from the Fr. form congete-r, was used by Caxton and his contemporaries.]
1. = CONJECTURE v.3 a. trans. (or with obj. clause.)
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., I. vi. 27. I coniecte þat þere lakkeþ I not what.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., I. (1495), 3. What so euer ony man wyll coniecte, feyne, ymagyne, suppose or saye.
1523. Surrey, in St. Papers Hen. VIII., IV. 38. What I conject the seid Duke woll doo.
1531. Elyot, Gov., III. xxv. If they wyl coniecte histories to be lyes.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. viii. § 29. Some Writers haue laboured to conject the true cause.
1613. T. Godwin, Rom. Antiq. (1674), 235. We may conject the reason of these ballances.
a. 1734. North, Exam., I. iii. § 71 (1740), 175. How far he was disposed to join with the Party … we may conject.
b. intr.
1388. Wyclif, Ezek. xxi. 19. He shal coniecte [1382 gesse] in the heed of the weie of the citee.
1565–73. Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Coniectura, Aberrare coniectura, to coniect wrong.
1604. Shaks., Oth., III. iii. 149 (Qq.). One that so imperfectly conjects [Ff. conceits].
c. To form the hypothesis, suppose. rare.
1588. Mellis, Briefe Instr., F v. Coniect in your owne imagination, that this … shoppe were a person Debitor.
2. trans. To forecast by signs, augur, divine, prognosticate. Also absol.
1496. Dives & Paup. (W. de W.), I. xxv. 60/2. By faynynge & falshode coniecte & tell to the people thynges that ben to come.
1565–73. Cooper, Thesaurus, Auguro … to tell by diuination what shall happen: to diuine: to coniect.
1582. N. T. (Rhem.), 2 Thess. ii. 2, note. Some [haue] presumed to calculate and coniect by the starres.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcel., xxi. 165. Conjecting his death by sundrie presaging tokens.
3. To contrive, devise, plan, plot.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 298. Alle þe newe lawis þat clerkis han maad ben sutilly conjectid by ypocrisie.
c. 1465. Eng. Chron. (Camd. 1856), 78. Coniectyng and ymaginyng howe he myghte dystroy theyme.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., clxiv. 148. Traytours that congetted [ed. 1520, p. 92, conjected] falsenesse ageynst hym.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XXXVI. v. With mortall Envie they did then conjecte To make a finde.
1541. Paynell, Catiline, xix. 38. Thy motions coniected … ageynst me.
1552. Huloet, Aduise or coniect how a thyng shall be done, præmeditor.
4. lit. To throw, cast. (rare.)
1625. Bp. Mountagu, App. Cæsar, 298. Nor [do] these men to cast on mee particular calumnies, but per satyram congested and conjected at a masse upon the Church of England.
1657. Tomlinson, Renou’s Disp., 325. Conjected into wine, it conciliates a certain suavity in drinking.
