\I*de"a\, n.; pl. {Ideas}. [L. idea, Gr. ?, fr. ? to see;
akin to E. wit: cf. F. id['e]e. See {Wit}.]
1. The transcript, image, or picture of a visible object,
   that is formed by the mind; also, a similar image of any
   object whatever, whether sensible or spiritual.
         Her sweet idea wandered through his thoughts.
                                               --Fairfax.
         Being the right idea of your father Both in your
         form and nobleness of mind.           --Shak.
         This representation or likeness of the object being
         transmitted from thence [the senses] to the
         imagination, and lodged there for the view and
         observation of the pure intellect, is aptly and
         properly called its idea.             --P. Browne.
2. A general notion, or a conception formed by
   generalization.
         Alice had not the slightest idea what latitude was.
                                               --L. Caroll.
3. Hence: Any object apprehended, conceived, or thought of,
   by the mind; a notion, conception, or thought; the real
   object that is conceived or thought of.
         Whatsoever the mind perceives in itself, or as the
         immediate object of perception, thought, or
         undersanding, that I call idea.       --Locke.
4. A belief, option, or doctrine; a characteristic or
   controlling principle; as, an essential idea; the idea of
   development.
         That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and
         that is a wrong one.                  --Johnson.
         What is now ``idea'' for us? How infinite the fall
         of this word, since the time where Milton sang of
         the Creator contemplating his newly-created world, -
         ``how it showed . . . Answering his great idea,'' -
         to its present use, when this person ``has an idea
         that the train has started,'' and the other ``had no
         idea that the dinner would be so bad!'' --Trench.
5. A plan or purpose of action; intention; design.
         I shortly afterwards set off for that capital, with
         an idea of undertaking while there the translation
         of the work.                          --W. Irving.
6. A rational conception; the complete conception of an
   object when thought of in all its essential elements or
   constituents; the necessary metaphysical or constituent
   attributes and relations, when conceived in the abstract.
7. A fiction object or picture created by the imagination;
   the same when proposed as a pattern to be copied, or a
   standard to be reached; one of the archetypes or patterns
   of created things, conceived by the Platonists to have
   excited objectively from eternity in the mind of the
   Deity.
         Thence to behold this new-created world, The
         addition of his empire, how it showed In prospect
         from his throne, how good, how fair, Answering his
         great idea.                           --Milton.
Note: ``In England, Locke may be said to have been the first
      who naturalized the term in its Cartesian universality.
      When, in common language, employed by Milton and
      Dryden, after Descartes, as before him by Sidney,
      Spenser, Shakespeare, Hooker, etc., the meaning is
      Platonic.'' --Sir W. Hamilton.
{Abstract idea}, {Association of ideas}, etc. See under
   {Abstract}, {Association}, etc.
Syn: Notion; conception; thought; sentiment; fancy; image;
     perception; impression; opinion; belief; observation;
     judgment; consideration; view; design; intention;
     purpose; plan; model; pattern. There is scarcely any
     other word which is subjected to such abusive treatment
     as is the word idea, in the very general and
     indiscriminative way in which it is employed, as it is
     used variously to signify almost any act, state, or
     content of thought.