Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Constructive

Con·struct′ive (kŏn·strŭk′tĭv), 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 or interpretation; not directly expressed, but inferred.

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.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.