v. [f. L. cōgitāt- ppl. stem of cōgitāre to think. The latter is app. contr. for co-agitāre, f. co- together + agitāre, one of the senses of which is ‘to turn over in the mind, revolve, weigh, consider’; see AGITATE v. 6.]
1. intr. To think, reflect, ponder, meditate; to exercise the thinking faculties.
a. 1631. Donne, Hist. Septuagint (1633), 101 (T.). As the life of the body is entertained in still cogitating.
1640. G. Watts, trans. Bacon’s Adv. Learn., II. xiii. 117 (R.). For he that calleth a thing into his mind, whether by impression or recordation, cogitateth and considereth; and he that imployeth the faculty of his phansie also cogitateth; and he that reasoneth, doth in like manner cogitate or devise.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, 59. Still cogitating and looking for an explanation in the fire.
1849. Miss Mulock, Ogilvies, ii. (1875), 19. That lady … lay cogitating over the past evening.
2. trans. with object or object-clause. Hence passing into: To devise, plan.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M., 780 (R.). We both day and night reuoluing in our minds did cogitate nothing more than how to satisfie the partes of a good pastour.
1652. C. Stapylton, Herodian, 62. By this his Dreame he Cogitates alone, He was Divinely called to the Throne.
Mod. The man is cogitating mischief against us.
b. Philos. To think (an object), to form a conception of.
1856. Meiklejohn, trans. Kant’s Crit. P. R., 50. The idea of a science of pure understanding and rational cognition by means of which we may cogitate objects entirely a priori.
1857. T. E. Webb, Intellectualism of Locke, ix. 174. Admitting that we are necessitated to ‘cogitate’ the great Ontologic Realities, the German Philosopher [Kant] denied that we are able to ‘cognize’ them.
