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What is "constructive"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
constructive
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a constructive/positive suggestion (=involving helpful ideas, not criticism)
▪ Any evaluation should be fair and linked to positive suggestions for improvement.
a helpful/constructive comment (=one that helps you make progress)
▪ Pay close attention to your teacher’s constructive comments.
constructive criticism (=aimed at improving something or someone in a helpful way)
▪ Praise and constructive criticism are both very useful.
constructive dismissal
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
more
▪ Union leaders reacted by taking a more constructive role in the policy discussions of the party.
▪ In private and public statements Washington listed five items that could be considered encouraging symbols of a more constructive policy.
▪ What many need is to be told that they can achieve something more constructive than a profit from others' financial predicament.
▪ Other more constructive workers split evenly between those favoring casual and those preferring declared.
▪ Playing for Bath was, Barnes felt, more constructive than being a track-suited reserve.
▪ This would seem to be a more constructive approach than simply locking up individuals.
▪ As already mentioned, it is likely that their life-styles will have involved more constructive and fulfilling leisure activities.
▪ Labour Members do not speak about it much now, and may now be moving in a more constructive direction.
most
▪ I really had the most constructive feedback from the questionnaires returned by you and Robert.
▪ Although arguably the most constructive approach, this is usually the one which creates the greatest controversy.
▪ The patient might rehearse in imagination the most constructive alternative so that he may readily adopt it if a crisis occurs.
▪ I stress that we have made them in the most constructive vein possible.
very
▪ The dialogue was very constructive, co-operative and helpful.
▪ No one will think you are crazy and it can be a very constructive discussion.
▪ Both the courses and the creche were very constructive.
▪ The video showed everyday situations which the staff could relate to, and enabled them to make very constructive comments.
▪ We need proper consideration of the very constructive alternative proposals we have put forward.
▪ Many teachers thought that their subject advisers were very constructive and fair in any comments they made after lessons.
▪ Utilising the help of visiting students or parents and helpers to listen to pupils retelling stories can be very constructive.
■ NOUN
action
▪ Thus the constructive action of the waves may be helped by the general onshore movement of water.
▪ Opinions have been divided whether the spur and groove systems are due to erosion or the constructive action of corals.
▪ So what constructive action can a lender take?
▪ Conflicts of interest among philanthropic groups originating in differing social or religious theories frustrated constructive action in certain fields.
approach
▪ Although arguably the most constructive approach, this is usually the one which creates the greatest controversy.
▪ This would seem to be a more constructive approach than simply locking up individuals.
▪ By carrying out this exercise you are adopting a constructive approach to your child's difficult behaviour.
criticism
▪ To express constructive criticism and voice well researched concerns is of course healthy and legitimate.
▪ I hope Dee takes it as constructive criticism.
▪ Once the purely factual purpose of the system becomes assimilated, resistance to, and fear of, constructive criticism should weaken.
▪ Clearly, though, the best way to improve your presentation skills is through practice and constructive criticism, hardly new concepts.
▪ It's no use being offended by constructive criticisms.
▪ Mr Kinnock will want Mr Prescott's national executive support - and may sometimes even need his constructive criticism.
▪ Never a word of constructive criticism.
▪ Serving officers who attempt constructive criticism of the police, risk being labelled traitors and put their promotion prospects in jeopardy.
dialogue
▪ In some of these, initial confrontation is now leading to constructive dialogue with local authority officials.
▪ This rapprochement of basic attitudes of educationalists and linguists is an important foundation for constructive dialogue and cooperation.
dismissal
▪ But what exactly is constructive dismissal?
▪ Practical implications Almost all constructive dismissal cases involve an unfair dismissal claim.
▪ Remember that unreasonable behaviour on your employer's part will not amount to constructive dismissal if the contract is not broken.
▪ Mr Rump was not dismissed; he resigned, claiming constructive dismissal.
▪ If you do not do so, you may be left in some doubt as to when a constructive dismissal occurs.
▪ Naturally, some cases of constructive dismissal are clear-cut.
▪ Dismissal may include constructive dismissal: the employer's behaviour proves so objectionable that the employee is obliged to leave.
engagement
▪ Premier's policy of constructive engagement incorporates a strong community development element.
▪ The softly-softly diplomacy of constructive engagement has no effect on President Mugabe.
▪ Also the regime wants to offer something to Asean and justify constructive engagement by accepting a mediator from an Asean member country.
knowledge
▪ In other words, is constructive knowledge sufficient?
▪ The question of constructive knowledge is more difficult.
role
▪ Union leaders reacted by taking a more constructive role in the policy discussions of the party.
▪ It is arguable that more recently retired business men would have a constructive role to play.
▪ The Government will continue to encourage all parties to play a constructive role in the reform process.
way
▪ The counselling process focuses upon self-image, and ultimately aims at modifying it in a constructive way.
▪ She was encouraged to find constructive ways to recognize feelings of anger and express them.
▪ One can only speculate, and surely there's a more constructive way to spend one's time?
▪ It is not easy in a country as hierarchically inclined as ours to continually question authority in a constructive way.
▪ Is not it time that he built the economy in a constructive way rather than just waffling about it?
▪ Mr. McLoughlin I am grateful for the constructive way in which my hon. Friend is addressing the problem.
▪ There are many cheaper and constructive ways to contain young offenders, but they ware not being funded by the Government.
▪ One of its objectives was the reform of the London College, which it pursued in a generally persuasive and constructive way.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Tribal leaders said they had "a very constructive conversation with the president" about the political situation in Rwanda.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A spirit of cooperation is the key to a constructive partnership between the media and the public.
▪ At other times, of course, they can be encouraging and constructive.
▪ Cizek's method of criticism is constructive, never destructive.
▪ However, an attempt must be made to make constructive suggestions, even if there are glaring contradictions.
▪ Is not it time that he built the economy in a constructive way rather than just waffling about it?
▪ Potential managers should also engage in constructive introspection.
▪ Such were the ideas that became the motivating and constructive force in framing our ritual.
▪ What we are looking for is what I call constructive no-men.
Related phrases:
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Constructive

Constructive \Con*struct"ive\, a. [Cf. F. constructif.]

  1. Having ability to construct or form; employed in construction; as, to exhibit constructive power.

    The constructive fingers of Watts.
    --Emerson.

  2. Derived from, or depending on, construction, inference, or interpretation; not directly expressed, but inferred.

  3. helpful; promoting improvement; intended to help; as, constructive criticism; constructive suggestions. Contrasted with destructive.

    Constructive crimes (Law), acts having effects analogous to those of some statutory or common law crimes; as, constructive treason. Constructive crimes are no longer recognized by the courts.

    Constructive notice, notice imputed by construction of law.

    Constructive trust, a trust which may be assumed to exist, though no actual mention of it be made.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
constructive

early 15c., "derived by interpretation," from Middle French constructif or from Medieval Latin constructivus, from Latin construct-, past participle stem of construere "to heap up" (see construction). Meaning "pertaining to construction" is from 1817; "having the quality of constructing" is from 1841. Related: Constructively. Constructive criticism is attested by 1841.

Wiktionary
constructive

a. 1 Relating to or causing construction. 2 Carefully considered and meant to be helpful. 3 (context legal English) imputed by law; created to give legal effect to something for equitable reasons, as with constructive notice or a constructive trust.

Related phrases:
WordNet
constructive

  1. adj. constructing or tending to construct or improve or promote development; "constructive criticism"; "a constructive attitude"; "a constructive philosophy"; "constructive permission" [ant: destructive]

  2. emphasizing what is laudable or hopeful or to the good; "constructive criticism"

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Constructive

Although the general English usage of the adjective constructive is "helping to develop or improve something; helpful to someone, instead of upsetting and negative," as in the phrase "constructive criticism," in legal writing constructive has a different meaning.

In its usage in law, constructive means what the law considers something to be, irrespective of the intentions of the relevant actor and irrespective of actual facts. It has also been defined in these terms: "That which exists, not in fact, but as a result of the operation of law. That which takes on a character as a consequence of the way it is treated by a rule or policy of law, as opposed to its actual character."

For example:

  • " Constructive notice" refers to a judicial presumption that a person knows of some fact, because certain acts such as registration with a public agency have occurred, even though the person is actually ignorant of the fact.
  • "Constructive knowledge" is knowledge that courts impute to a person because such knowledge is obtainable by the exercise of reasonable care.
  • " Constructive eviction" occurs when a landlord does not actually evict but does something that renders the premises unlivable. This might occur, for example, where a tenant vacates an apartment because a landlord turns off the heat or water. The tenant, however, must abandon possession in order to claim that there was a constructive eviction.
  • " Constructive fraud," unlike actual fraud which requires an intentional false statement, requires only a negligent false statement that causes damage to the plaintiff (or in some states an innocent but injurious false statement).
Related phrases:

Usage examples of "constructive".

They felt a reward was in order because Warren had shown constructive behavior patterns and was showing a marked change in his attitude and behavioral characteristics.

But instinct told her that the blackmailer would seek her out and if it took a while to hunt her down, she might be able to use that time to do something constructive.

Her focus was completely on the Catahoula hound that had destroyed the first constructive thing she had accomplished since leaving Georgia and her career behind.

I cannot help feeling that it would have been better if the majority of Leaguers had done some bit of constructive work towards a Distributist world and sweated out of their system the irritability that found vent in some of their quarrels.

A small Westernized intelligentzia with many internal feuds and doctrinal disputes struggled, not very effectively, in the larger towns to turn this merely insurgent Communism into modern and constructive paths after the Moscow pattern.

The Modern State arose indeed out of the same social imperatives and the same constructive impulses that begot Marxism and Leninism, but as an independent, maturer, and sounder revolutionary conception.

How can these warlike preparations, in which all the European nations share, and the warlike spirit which they have occasionally displayed, be reconciled with the existence of any constructive relationship between the national and the democratic ideas?

To a large extent he followed the older Utopists in assuming that the philosophical and constructive problem could be done once for all, and he worked the results out simply under an organised kinetic government.

Adult is the only constructive way to confront the many anxiety-provoking pronouncements the teen-ager can bring home.

He does indeed marshal a number of facts about India, and towards the end he even produces a couple of pages of constructive suggestions, but for the most part his book is simply a nagging, irrelevant attack on British rule, mixed up with tourist-like gush about the superiority of Indian civilization.

That would give the boyars something constructive to do with their excess energy.

The Ninth Cause of Action contains the charges that the fraudulent conduct on the part of the defendants as herein alleged was willful, wanton, malicious and in utter disregard of the rights of the plaintiff causing him mental and professional distress and that as a result he is entitled to compensatory and treble or punitive damages, an accounting, a constructive trust for plaintiff's benefit on all profits and gross revenues from The Blood in the Red White and Blue, an injunction stopping its showing unless and until he is credited with his originative role in its creation, interest, costs and reasonable attorney's fees.

Before giving an account of the repairs and alterations to the vessel in 1909 -- 1910, we shall briefly recapitulate, with the author's permission, a part of the description of the Fram in Fridtjof Nansen's work, especially as regards the constructive peculiarities of the vessel.

The Bigwigs of this week-end were quite a different lot from those of three weeks ago, and comparatively homogeneous, having only three different plans for settling the land question, none of which, fortunately, involved any more real disturbance of the existing state of things than the potato, brownbread plan, for all were based on the belief held by the respectable press, and constructive portions of the community, that omelette can be made without breaking eggs.

When these engrams are deleted from the reactive mind bank, rationality and efficiency are enormously heightened, health is greatly increased and the individual computes rationally on the survival conduct pattern, which is to say, he enjoys himself and the society of those around him and is constructive and creative.