construe

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con·strue

(kən-stro͞o′)

v. con·strued, con·stru·ing, con·strues

v.tr.

1. To understand or explain the meaning of (something), especially in a particular way; interpret: The waiter construed my smile as assent. The editorial construed the act as irresponsible. See Synonyms at explain.

2. Grammar

a. To analyze the structure of (a clause or sentence).

b. To use syntactically: The noun fish can be construed as singular or plural.

3. To translate, especially aloud.

v.intr.

1. To analyze grammatical structure.

2. To be subject to grammatical analysis.

n. (kŏn′stro͞o′)

An interpretation or translation.

[Middle English construen, from Late Latin cōnstruere, from Latin, to build; see construct.]

con·stru′al n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

construe

(kənˈstruː)

vb (mainly tr) , -strues, -struing or -strued

1. to interpret the meaning of (something): you can construe that in different ways.

2. (may take a clause as object) to discover by inference; deduce

3. (Grammar) to analyse the grammatical structure of; parse (esp a Latin or Greek text as a preliminary to translation)

4. (Grammar) to combine (words) syntactically

5. (also intr) old-fashioned to translate literally, esp aloud as an academic exercise

old-fashioned something that is construed, such as a piece of translation

[C14: from Latin construere to pile up; see construct]

conˈstruable adj

conˌstruaˈbility n

conˈstruer n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

con•strue

(v. kənˈstru; esp. Brit. ˈkɒn stru; n. ˈkɒn stru)

v. -strued, -stru•ing,
n. v.t.

1. to give or explain the meaning or intention of; interpret.

2. to deduce by inference or interpretation; infer.

3. to analyze the grammatical structure of, esp. combined with translating: to construe a Latin sentence.

4. to arrange or combine (words, phrases, etc.) syntactically.

v.i.

5. to admit of grammatical analysis or interpretation.

6. to analyze grammatical structure.

7. the act of construing.

8. something that is construed.

[1325–75; Middle English < Latin construere to put together, build =con- con- + struere to pile up, arrange]

con•stru′a•ble, adj.

con•stru′al, n.

con•stru′er, n.

construe

Past participle: construed
Gerund: construing

Imperative
construe
construe

Present
I construe
you construe
he/she/it construes
we construe
you construe
they construe

Preterite
I construed
you construed
he/she/it construed
we construed
you construed
they construed

Present Continuous
I am construing
you are construing
he/she/it is construing
we are construing
you are construing
they are construing

Present Perfect
I have construed
you have construed
he/she/it has construed
we have construed
you have construed
they have construed

Past Continuous
I was construing
you were construing
he/she/it was construing
we were construing
you were construing
they were construing

Past Perfect
I had construed
you had construed
he/she/it had construed
we had construed
you had construed
they had construed

Future
I will construe
you will construe
he/she/it will construe
we will construe
you will construe
they will construe

Future Perfect
I will have construed
you will have construed
he/she/it will have construed
we will have construed
you will have construed
they will have construed

Future Continuous
I will be construing
you will be construing
he/she/it will be construing
we will be construing
you will be construing
they will be construing

Present Perfect Continuous
I have been construing
you have been construing
he/she/it has been construing
we have been construing
you have been construing
they have been construing

Future Perfect Continuous
I will have been construing
you will have been construing
he/she/it will have been construing
we will have been construing
you will have been construing
they will have been construing

Past Perfect Continuous
I had been construing
you had been construing
he/she/it had been construing
we had been construing
you had been construing
they had been construing

Conditional
I would construe
you would construe
he/she/it would construe
we would construe
you would construe
they would construe

Past Conditional
I would have construed
you would have construed
he/she/it would have construed
we would have construed
you would have construed
they would have construed

Collins English Verb Tables © HarperCollins Publishers 2011

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Verb

construe - make sense of; assign a meaning to; "What message do you see in this letter?"; "How do you interpret his behavior?"

interpret, see

understand - know and comprehend the nature or meaning of; "She did not understand her husband"; "I understand what she means"

be amiss, misapprehend, misconceive, misconstrue, misunderstand, misinterpret - interpret in the wrong way; "Don't misinterpret my comments as criticism"; "She misconstrued my remarks"

read between the lines - read what is implied but not expressed on the surface

mythicise, mythicize - interpret as a myth or in terms of mythology; "mythicize the ancient stories"

literalise, literalize - make literal; "literalize metaphors"

spiritualise, spiritualize - give a spiritual meaning to; read in a spiritual sense

reinterpret - assign a new or different meaning to

allegorise, allegorize - interpret as an allegory

read, take - interpret something in a certain way; convey a particular meaning or impression; "I read this address as a satire"; "How should I take this message?"; "You can't take credit for this!"

read - interpret something that is written or printed; "read the advertisement"; "Have you read Salman Rushdie?"

read, scan - obtain data from magnetic tapes; "This dictionary can be read by the computer"

consider, regard, view, reckon, see - deem to be; "She views this quite differently from me"; "I consider her to be shallow"; "I don't see the situation quite as negatively as you do"

educe, elicit, evoke, extract, draw out - deduce (a principle) or construe (a meaning); "We drew out some interesting linguistic data from the native informant"

collocate with, construe with, cooccur with, co-occur with, go with - go or occur together; "The word 'hot' tends to cooccur with 'cold'"

construe

verb interpret, take, read, explain He may construe your approach as a hostile act.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

construe

verb

1. To make understandable:

decipher, explain, explicate, expound, interpret, spell out.

Archaic: enucleate.

Idiom: put into plain English.

2. To understand in a particular way:

interpret, read, take.

3. To express in another language, while systematically retaining the original sense:

put, render, translate.

Translations

explicar

analyser interpréter

interpretare

interpretacja interpretować tłumaczenie tłumaczyćtranslacja

construe

[kənˈstruː] VT → interpretar

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

construe

[kənˈstruː] vt (= interpret) → interpréter
to be construed as → être interprété(e) comme

construe

(Gram) words → analysieren; sentence also → zerlegen; in English it is construed as an adjective → im Englischen wird das als Adjektiv betrachtet

(= interpret) → auslegen, auffassen

vi (Gram, sentence) → sich zerlegen or aufgliedern or analysieren lassen

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

construe

[kənˈstruː] vt (interpret) → interpretare

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By giving Al Rohypnol as a pre-death sedative, I was, however, altering the legal gravity of our actions, not merely because Rohypnol is a restricted drug but because once Al became unconscious his death was no longer an "assisted suicide" (with a maximum penalty of up to 14 years imprisonment) but rather became construable as premeditated first-degree murder.

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"Strictly speaking, no executive order issued in the absence of statutory authority, which confers power on the President for implementation on the legislative model, is construable as a law of the United States." Id.

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In this formulation, culture is an 'interworked system(s) of construable signs' that provides the context within which behaviour, utterances, and social events can be understood among members of a community.' [5] More recently, culture has been described as 'shared symbols and meanings that people create in the process of social interaction', a resource that shapes experience, interpretation, and action, and 'orients people in their ways of feeling, thinking, and being in the world'.' [6] Thus conceived, culture invests our experience with meaning and significance, providing a framework for interpretation and permitting a shared experience of the world.

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Anderson came to agree with original official reports that a lead projectile in Matix's head from Mireles' buckshot, fired into the vehicle toward the end of the fight, had marks construable as rifling striations and, therefore, came from a lead .38 slug fired by McNeill.

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For an example on the Byronic side, Manfred merely dies under the weight of his guilt and self-loathing, which is largely construable as the way in which Turin dies.

Master of doom by doom mastered: heroism, fate, and death in the Children of Hurin

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