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What is "construe"

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construe
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
construe
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
accordingly
▪ References in the Code to exempt fund managers are construed accordingly.
as
▪ Was any attack on them to be construed as national treason?
▪ Invariably, these family definitions, whatever their content, are construed as positive by those that subscribe to them.
▪ Besides, the words could be construed as flirtatious, and she didn't want him getting the wrong impression again.
▪ In dozens of written comments about Brezzo and Rice, not one could be construed as positive or supportive.
▪ But if they were used only after proper training and in self-defence, how can that be construed as unprovoked aggression?
▪ And we tell our graduate students that they must never take such risks, construing as scruple what in fact is timidity.
▪ According to Gandhi, it is when symbols become fetishes and embodiments of the divine, that they might be construed as idols.
■ NOUN
act
▪ Lord Reid said that the courts must carry out this task by construing the Act as a whole.
clause
▪ The courts were generally reluctant to construe an exclusion clause as covering cases of breach of fundamental term or fundamental breach.
▪ To be sure, this Court has construed the Commerce Clause to accommodate unanticipated changes over the past two centuries.
court
▪ The court construes it according to its terms and finds that, so construed, it enables tax to be saved or minimized.
▪ To be sure, this Court has construed the Commerce Clause to accommodate unanticipated changes over the past two centuries.
▪ There are three rules of construction which the courts might employ when construing a statute.
▪ It is for the courts alone to construe such legislation.
▪ Although the position is not entirely clear, it seems that a court construing the terms will take punctuation into account.
▪ Instances occur where the courts feel obliged to construe a statute in a way that they themselves acknowledge creates outrageous injustice.
▪ The courts construed this broadly to include the documents which initiated the proceedings, the pleadings and the adjudication.
▪ The function of the court is to construe and apply the enactments of Parliament.
word
▪ It matters because it means that a trust can be construed even from words which look rather unpromising.
▪ At one time this requirement was construed broadly, so that words merely precatory were accepted as raising a trust.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Accordingly, we would construe the guarantee and debenture in the same way that we have construed the mortgage deeds.
▪ Even a thickening waist, while annoying, can be construed as a viewer problem, to an extent.
▪ Instances occur where the courts feel obliged to construe a statute in a way that they themselves acknowledge creates outrageous injustice.
▪ Properly construed, it is, we think, a promising theory.
▪ That role has always been narrowly construed.
▪ The district court recognized that the Alabama statute violated the establishment clause as construed by the Supreme Court.
▪ The way the theory construed its object would determine the nature of the theory itself.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Construe

Construe \Con*strue\ (?; Archaic ?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Construed; p. pr. & vb. n. Construing.] [L. construere: cf. F. construire. See Construct.]

  1. To apply the rules of syntax to (a sentence or clause) so as to exhibit the structure, arrangement, or connection of, or to discover the sense; to explain the construction of; to interpret; to translate.

  2. To put a construction upon; to explain the sense or intention of; to interpret; to understand.

    Thus we are put to construe and paraphrase our own words to free ourselves either from the ignorance or malice of our enemies.
    --Bp. Stilingfleet.

    And to be dull was construed to be good.
    --Pope.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
construe

late 14c., from Late Latin construere "to relate grammatically," in classical Latin "to build up, pile together" (see construction); also see construct (v.), which is a later acquisition of the same word. Related: Construed; construing; construal.

Wiktionary
construe

n. 1 A translation. 2 An interpretation. vb. 1 To interpret or explain the meaning of something. 2 (context grammar English) To analyze the grammatical structure of a clause or sentence. 3 To translate.

WordNet
construe

v. make sense of; assign a meaning to; "What message do you see in this letter?"; "How do you interpret his behavior?" [syn: interpret, see]

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "construe".

It adopts the general rule of the common law that such statutes are not to be construed to embrace offenses which are not within their intention and terms.

On his rampages in the Cauldron Nebula and the Carida system, Kyp had left message cylinders to explain what he had done and why, so that no one would construe his actions as simple astronomical accidents.

Cases that, in retrospect, may seem aberrant or even ludicrous censorial excesses sometimes became guideposts by which the censored party decided what the victors construed to be within the boundaries of acceptable expression.

I to construe that my presence means the Race extends the same cease-fire to Great Britain as to my cobelligerents who sit at this table with me?

The lower court had asserted that the duty of the President under the faithful execution clause gave him no other control over the officer than to see that he acts honestly, with proper motives, but no power to construe the law, and see that the executive action conforms to it.

III, section 2, could not be construed as extending either the legislative or judicial power of the United States to cover offenses committed on vessels outside the United States but not on the high seas.

The meticulous care manifested in this case appeared twenty years later when the Court narrowly construed section 11 of the Judiciary Act of 1789, vesting the federal courts with jurisdiction where an alien was a party, in order to keep it within the limits of this clause.

With respect to the European powers that were not actually engaged as principals in the war, they seemed industriously to avoid every step that might be construed as a deviation from the most scrupulous neutrality.

The Regals never publicized any action of theirs that might be construed as a punishment.

Japanese militarism and ultranationalism were construed as reflecting the essence of a feudalistic, Oriental culture that was cancerous in and of itself.

He told me kindly one day that I ought not to call at that house so often, as my constant visits might be wrongly construed, and prove detrimental to the reputation of his niece.

All such toyings with illicit ideas are construed as attentats against democracy, which, in a sense, perhaps they are.

There was evidence, however, that this kindness had been construed as weakness by some of the burghers, and during the Boer incursion to Wepener many who had surrendered a worthless firearm reappeared with the Mauser which had been concealed in some crafty hiding-place.

One facet of their ploy was to claim that all Kings since the Abdication of Chivalry were pretenders, that the bastardy of FitzChivalry Farseer was wrongly construed as an obstacle to his inheriting the throne.

The young man paused with an air of reluctance, muttered something which was not altogether intelligible, but which Stevens construed into assent, and the two set forth together--the good old matron giving a glance of gratitude to the benevolent young student which her son did not fail to note, while, at the same time, a sentence which evidently conveyed some motherly rebuke, was addressed to his already-irritated ears.