[ad. L. excōgitātiōn-em, n. of action f. excōgitāre to think out: see EXCOGITATE.]

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  1.  The action of excogitating; thinking out; reflection, mental contrivance. Const. of.

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1531.  Elyot, Gov., I. xxiii. To consideration pertaineth excogitation and auisement.

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1655.  H. Vaughan, Silex Scint., I. Pref. (1858), 3. Many of them cast away all their fair portion of time, in … excogitation of idle words.

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1759.  Johnson, Rasselas, xliii. The labour of excogitation is too violent to last long.

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1854.  H. Rogers, Ess. (1860), II. 12. Patient excogitation must be the metaphysician’s great instrument.

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1865.  Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. ii. To the excogitation of this problem, [he] had devoted many anxious hours.

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  2.  A result of the action; a plan thought out; a contrivance, an invention.

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1664.  Power, Exp. Philos., I. 81. The second Experiment, is one of the ingenious Excogitations of M. Gascoign’s.

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a. 1687.  Petty, Pol. Arith., i. (1690), 21. All these particulars, said to be the subtile excogitations of the Hollanders.

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1706.  Phillips, Excogitation, an Invention or Device.

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1721–1800.  in Bailey.

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1748.  Smollett, Rod. Rand. (1812), I. 292. I will impart my own simple excogitations.

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