Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

At the hasty disappearance, Olive looked up with a bitter little smile, that would have instantly disclosed to an observer, how she was construing the act, and how she was hurt in spite of herself.

From Six Girls A Home Story by Merrill, Frank T. (Frank Thayer)

The class was construing Shakespeare and one of the students asked the professor what the meaning of a particular figure used by the great dramatist was.

From Education: How Old The New by Walsh, James J.

"You must remember you are translating poetry," said a conscientious master to a boy who was construing Virgil.

From Joyous Gard by Benson, Arthur Christopher

Construe and translate.—In my school-days, verbal rendering from Latin or Greek into English was construing; the same on paper was translating.

From Notes and Queries, Number 32, June 8, 1850 by Various

Scarcely out of his long clothes, he was construing Herodotus and the dialogues of Plato, and the whole of his dreary youth was spent in covering the vast field of the moral and mathematical sciences.

From Fabre, Poet of Science by Miall, Bernard