construes

Verb

construe (third-person singular simple present construes, present participle construing, simple past and past participle construed)

1. (transitive) To understand (something) as meaning, to take to mean.
   • Bru[tus]. […] But let not therefore my good Friends be greeu'd
     (Among which number Cassius be you one)
     Nor conſtrue any further my neglect,
     Then that poore Brutus with himſelfe at warre,
     Forgets the ſhews of Loue to other men.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
2. (transitive) To interpret (something) to another or publicly, explain the meaning of (something, usually language).
   • This is a new fashionable proverb, which I must construe to you.1750, “To [Sir Horace Mann], Feb. 25. — Ministerial quarrels […] ”, in The Letter of Horace Walpole, Earl of Oxford, volume II, London: Richard Betley, New Burlington Street, published 1840, page 319
3. (transitive) To analyze the grammatical structure of a clause or sentence; to parse.
   • Thus, in a sentence such as:
     (113) John considers [_S Fred to be too sure of himself]
     the italicised Reflexive himself can only be construed with Fred, not with John: this follows from our assumption that non-subject Reflexives must have an antecedent within their own S. Notice, however, that in a...1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 8, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 436
4. (ergative) To admit of grammatical analysis.
5. (transitive) To translate.
6. To infer.

See all 9 meanings of construe