construe
[ verb kuhn-stroo or, especially British, kon-stroo; noun kon-stroo ]
/ verb kənˈstru or, especially British, ˈkɒn stru; noun ˈkɒn stru /
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verb (used with object), con·strued, con·stru·ing.
verb (used without object), con·strued, con·stru·ing.
to admit of grammatical analysis or interpretation.
noun
the act of construing.
something that is construed.
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Origin of construe
OTHER WORDS FROM construe
con·stru·er, nounun·con·strued, adjectiveWords nearby construe
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Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021
Example sentences from the Web for construe
British Dictionary definitions for construe
construe
/ (kənˈstruː) /
verb -strues, -struing or -strued (mainly tr)
to interpret the meaning of (something)you can construe that in different ways
(may take a clause as object) to discover by inference; deduce
to analyse the grammatical structure of; parse (esp a Latin or Greek text as a preliminary to translation)
to combine (words) syntactically
(also intr) old-fashioned to translate literally, esp aloud as an academic exercise
noun
old-fashioned something that is construed, such as a piece of translation
Derived forms of construe
construable, adjectiveconstruability, nounconstruer, nounWord Origin for construe
C14: from Latin construere to pile up; see construct
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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