CONSTRUE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does construe mean? 

• CONSTRUE (verb)
  The verb CONSTRUE has 1 sense:

1. make sense of; assign a meaning to

  Familiarity information: CONSTRUE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONSTRUE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they construe    ... he / she / it construes   
Past simple: construed   
Past participle: construed   
-ing form: construing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make sense of; assign a meaning to

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

construe; interpret; see

Context example:

How do you interpret his behavior?

Hypernyms (to "construe" is one way to...):

understand (know and comprehend the nature or meaning of)

Verb group:

consider; reckon; regard; see; view (deem to be)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "construe"):

be amiss; misapprehend; misconceive; misconstrue; misinterpret; misunderstand (interpret in the wrong way)

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)

literalise; literalize (make literal)

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)

read (interpret something that is written or printed)

read; scan (obtain data from magnetic tapes or other digital sources)

draw out; educe; elicit; evoke; extract (deduce (a principle) or construe (a meaning))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Also:

construe with (go or occur together)

Derivation:

construal (an interpretation of the meaning of something; the act of construing)

 Context examples 

I construed this remark into an indication of a wish that he should have my place, so I blushingly offered to resign it.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The quantity of unbalanced electricity in a body (either positive or negative) and construed as an excess or deficiency of electrons.

(Charge, NCI Thesaurus)

She's an excitable, nervous person: she construed her dream into an apparition, or something of that sort, no doubt; and has taken a fit with fright.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

An office maintained by a physician for the practice of medicine, or dentistry shall not be construed to be an ambulatory surgical center.

(Ambulatory Surgical Center, NCI Thesaurus)

For oncology, area of the body generally construed to comprise base of skull and facial bones, sinuses, orbits, salivary glands, oral cavity, oropharynx, larynx, thyroid, facial and neck musculature and lymph nodes draining these areas.

(Murine Head and Neck, NCI Thesaurus)

I was ready to sink from fatigue and hunger, but being surrounded by a crowd, I thought it politic to rouse all my strength, that no physical debility might be construed into apprehension or conscious guilt.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Secretions and fluids from the area of the body generally construed to comprise base of skull and facial bones, sinuses, orbits, salivary glands, oral cavity, oropharynx, larynx, thyroid, facial and neck musculature and lymph nodes draining these areas.

(Head and Neck Fluids and Secretions, NCI Thesaurus)

For oncology, an area of the body generally construed to comprise the base of skull and facial bones, sinuses, orbits, salivary glands, oral cavity, oropharynx, larynx, thyroid, facial and neck musculature and lymph nodes draining these areas.

(Head and Neck, NCI Thesaurus)

With a glance, she saw that he had lost none of his recent civility; and, to imitate his politeness, she began, as they met, to admire the beauty of the place; but she had not got beyond the words delightful, and charming, when some unlucky recollections obtruded, and she fancied that praise of Pemberley from her might be mischievously construed.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Elizabeth, construing all this into a wish of hearing her speak of her sister, was pleased, and on this account, as well as some others, found herself, when their visitors left them, capable of considering the last half-hour with some satisfaction, though while it was passing, the enjoyment of it had been little.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)