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construe
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  • When he questioned them further about whether they got away with more from their mother than their father, they all admitted to behaviors that could be construed as flirting—though they thought they were just getting around Mom because she was easier than Dad.†   (source)
  • Don't wait to construe—misconstrue as fast as you can.†   (source)
  • Even Larry Lish, when questioned, couldn't remember anything in Owen's remarks that could be construed as anti-Semitic; Larry, in fact, admitted that his mother had a habit of labeling everyone who treated her with less than complete reverence as an anti-Semite—as if, in Mrs. Lish's view, the only possible reason to dislike her was that she was Jewish.†   (source)
  • Sending other men to do his office ...some might construe that as a grave insult.†   (source)
  • While these were qualities that were perfectly acceptable, perhaps even desirable, in Touchables, Vellya Paapen thought that in a Paravan they could (and would, and indeed, should) be construed as insolence.†   (source)
  • That she'll say something that could be construed as traitorous without knowing it," says Finnick.†   (source)
  • The trouble is, when you gift a girl with flowers your choice can be construed so many different ways.†   (source)
  • He thought later that the world, in its unfailing perversity, would probably construe those things which he did next as acts of heroism.†   (source)
  • THIS MAY BE CONSTRUED AS A "TECHNICAL ASSAULT."†   (source)
  • Carter looked at me strangely, and I realized what I'd said might have been construed as a compliment.†   (source)
  • The night had not gone as well as he had hoped it would—Lorena had not given him anything that could be construed as encouragement—but it occurred to Dish that maybe she just needed more time to get used to the notion that he loved her.†   (source)
  • Since the German wordschwer means both difficult and heavy, Beethoven's difficult resolution may also be construed as a heavy or weighty resolution.†   (source)
  • The stranger lowered his backpack and fished around; Clayton craned his neck, hoping for a glimpse of anything that could be construed as drugs or weapons.†   (source)
  • Unless, that is, "the economy" is construed in a broader sense—as a means to build and maintain hundreds of prisons.†   (source)
  • He hated himself for what he construed to be his own cowardice.†   (source)
  • I was terrified, because I knew it could be construed as a weapon.†   (source)
  • Then realizing how that might be construed, she pulled back.†   (source)
  • Manning breathed deeply; in less military surroundings it might have been construed as a sigh.†   (source)
  • Their taking of the ship can certainly be construed as an act of piracy.†   (source)
  • In the control room, a young intellectual of Chick Morrison's staff stood ready to cut the broadcast off the air in case of trouble, but he saw no political significance in the speech he was hearing, no element he could construe as dangerous to his masters.†   (source)
  • He construed his deliverance from the park to have to do with the heat coming up, and that to have to do with the cancelling of Theresa's scholarship, which he now chided himself for having celebrated.†   (source)
  • But even so, I still cannot persuade myself that this manifestation of early Christian civilization should be construed all that simply as a way into whatever is exploitative or barbaric in our history, past and present.†   (source)
  • The detractors of Varuna were not so numerous, however, for it was common knowledge that he deserved the title Just, and his condemnation could easily be construed to reflect upon the worth of its speaker, so few spoke of him beyond the days immediately following his going.†   (source)
  • For another thing, there was the simple matter of what I construed to be Nathan's overwhelming seniority.†   (source)
  • CROMWELL Is that what the world in fact construes from it?†   (source)
  • Anything that I could construe as relevant to the day when they would leave the island had a place in the classroom.†   (source)
  • He of course told Leigh Anne and Sean that he really liked Ole Miss—but only after Leigh Anne and Sean explained to him that, if he had any intention of going to Ole Miss, they really ought to go through the process of formally adopting him, so that the many gifts they had already bestowed on him might be construed not as boosters' graft but parental love.   (source)
    construed = understood
  • The Congress shall have the power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States or of any particular State.   (source)
    construed = interpreted
  • The story was written by a local-yokel reporter who construed the act as an antiwar gesture.†   (source)
  • MORE The world must construe according to its wits.†   (source)
  • Is she to construe this as an invitation?†   (source)
  • This Court must construe according to the law.†   (source)
  • Do you pretend that is what you wish the world to construe from it?†   (source)
  • Mammachi knew this, but preferred to construe Margaret Kochamma's silence as a tacit acceptance of payment for the favors Mammachi imagined she bestowed on her son.†   (source)
  • Despite the rain, they talked; Adrienne noticed that he kept the conversation light, far from anything that could be construed the wrong way.†   (source)
  • Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Rosalie looking down at the table, and I realized that my words could be construed in two ways.†   (source)
  • Lord Walder might well construe the queen's absence from the wedding as another slight, yet her presence would have been a different sort of insult, salt in the old man's wound.†   (source)
  • As for an escort or guarantee, Webster informed Tappan that the Gentlemen would receive the same protection afforded all other ships sailing under an American flag, and if the Spanish dared to interfere in her voyage, it would be construed as a hostile act and responded to accordingly by the U.S. government.†   (source)
  • Even though Genesis says that God gave man dominion over all animals, we can also construe it to mean that He merely entrusted them to man's care.†   (source)
  • =I know only that she had spoken with David at some earlier time, that she had construed his words of coming retribution and his mention of the control helmet he was constructing as indicating that his intentions were to become the agent of that retribution, with myself as the proximate cause.†   (source)
  • As Leslie unlocks the front door she remarks that, it being Thursday, it is Minnie's night off, and I construe this to lay emphasis on the privacy we will have.†   (source)
  • There, however, he had been confronted with evidence of Sophie's betrayal—or what he construed as such—and now there seemed no doubt that the celebration had not only become aborted, it was headed for unknown depths of disaster.†   (source)
  • At Duke, Jack had wanted to become a sculptor, and now after postwar study at the Art Students' League, he had removed himself to the serene little hills behind Nyack to fashion huge objects in cast iron and sheet metal—aided (he allowed to me without reticence) by what might be construed as a fine dowry, since his bride was the daughter of one of the biggest cotton-mill owners in South Carolina.†   (source)
  • If, therefore, you wish to construe what my silence "betokened," you must construe that I consented, not that I denied.†   (source)
  • Finding it impossible to avoid construing this demonstration into a defiance of himself, its gloomy significance being unmistakable, Clennam looked plaintively at the excellent though prejudiced lady from whom it emanated, in the hope that she might be disarmed by a meek submission.†   (source)
    construing = understanding something to have a specific meaning
  • It was in this way that she had construed his answer when they parted all that time ago.†   (source)
  • But our most popular prophets were undoubtedly those who in an apocalyptic jargon had announced sequences of events, any one of which might be construed as applicable to the present state of affairs and was abstruse enough to admit of almost any interpretation.†   (source)
  • waiting for the next picture which the mentor, the corruptor, intended for it: that next picture, following the fixation and acceptance of which the mentor would say again, perhaps with words now, still watching the sober and thoughtful face but still secure in his knowledge and trust in that puritan heritage which must show disapproval instead of surprise or even despair and nothing at all rather than have the disapprobation construed as surprise or despair: 'But even this is not it': and Henry, 'You mean, it is still higher than this, still above this?'†   (source)
  • One day toward the end of that time, as he continued to cough up blood and grew worrisomely feeble, there gathered around him what he construed as a deathwatch: his wife, Dr. Hattori, the hospital matron, several nurses.†   (source)
  • Since the day when he gave her the green bonnet, Rhett had made no advances which could in any way be construed as those of a lover.†   (source)
  • Did you hear all this construed last time or not?†   (source)
  • In so far as her mind could construe, she acknowledged benefits received.†   (source)
  • There's an old story has the same refrain;
    Who bade them so construe it?†   (source)
  • Your conscience will tell you, sir, whether I construe it well or not.'†   (source)
  • Now as he heard her words, he construed them in his own fashion.†   (source)
  • This hesitancy, construed by the man apparently to constitute attention, however mobile, was seized upon by him and he began addressing them as though they were specifically here to hear him.†   (source)
  • Pleasantly giddy from the odor of plants and the sultry warmth of the shop, which made his eyes water after the cold outdoors, he completed the transaction with a happy, pounding heart, construing his modest effort as bold, adventurous, and helpful, and secretly ascribing symbolic importance to it.†   (source)
  • My body, still too heavy with sleep to move, would make an effort to construe the form which its tiredness took as an orientation of its various members, so as to induce from that where the wall lay and the furniture stood, to piece together and to give a name to the house in which it must be living.†   (source)
  • One of the first examples that he had learnt in Latin had run: INDIA MITTIT EBUR; and he recalled the shrewd northern face of the rector who had taught him to construe the Metamorphoses of Ovid in a courtly English, made whimsical by the mention of porkers and potsherds and chines of bacon.†   (source)
  • Tho' some of these caprices of the pit could not but be observed by their object, yet were they beyond the construing of such a nature.†   (source)
  • Then her conscience reproached her, and she yearned to say something kind and loving; but she judged that this would be construed into a confession that she had been in the wrong, and discipline forbade that.†   (source)
  • He was a man not merely religious, but devout; a firm believer—not as the phrase is now elusively construed by theological thimble-riggers in the Church and out of it, but in the old and ardent sense of the Evangelical school: one who could Indeed opine That the Eternal and Divine Did, eighteen centuries ago In very truth... Angel's father tried argument, persuasion, entreaty.†   (source)
  • Stripped of all guise, her actions must have been construed by a penetrating and impartial judge as a mere parading of her decorated person before a number of males with the purpose of ultimate selection.†   (source)
  • At that question unintentionally touching on a spiritual sphere wholly obscure to Billy's thoughts, he was nonplussed, evincing a confusion indeed that some observers, such as can readily be imagined, would have construed into involuntary evidence of hidden guilt.†   (source)
  • Rather than risk an answer which might be wrong and excite a storm of abuse from the master, he would sit stupidly silent, and when it came towards his turn to stand up and construe he grew sick and white with apprehension.†   (source)
  • You knew exactly what lines would come to your turn to construe, and with the crib that passed from hand to hand you could find out all you wanted in two minutes; you could hold a Latin Grammar open on your knees while questions were passing round; and Winks never noticed anything odd in the fact that the same incredible mistake was to be found in a dozen different exercises.†   (source)
  • When he asked Eldridge, his cleverest boy, what was the meaning of this the answer came sullenly: "Mr. Perkins never gave us any construing to do.†   (source)
  • His nails were bitten to the quick, for while some trembling boy was construing he would sit at his desk shaking with the fury that consumed him, and gnaw his fingers.†   (source)
  • Mr. Turner, who was the first victim, broke the news to his form that the headmaster would take them for Latin that day, and on the pretence that they might like to ask him a question or two so that they should not make perfect fools of themselves, spent the last quarter of an hour of the history lesson in construing for them the passage of Livy which had been set for the day; but when he rejoined his class and looked at the paper on which Mr. Perkins had written the marks, a surprise awaited him; for the two boys at the top of the form seemed to have done very ill, while others who had never distinguished themselves before were given full marks.†   (source)
  • But in a moment he reflected that he himself had, after all, touched first upon this delicate point, and that his words might have been construed as an offer of assistance.†   (source)
  • Mr. Sowerberry rightly construed this, as an acquiescence in his proposition; it was speedily determined, therefore, that Oliver should be at once initiated into the mysteries of the trade; and, with this view, that he should accompany his master on the very next occasion of his services being required.†   (source)
  • Article IX The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.†   (source)
  • 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.†   (source)
  • I construed this remark into an indication of a wish that he should have my place, so I blushingly offered to resign it.†   (source)
  • Thus she lived on, a dumb, deep-feeling, great-eyed creature, construed by not a single contiguous being; quenching with patient fortitude her incipient interest in Farfrae, because it seemed to be one-sided, unmaidenly, and unwise.†   (source)
  • 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.†   (source)
  • No one had the slightest suspicion; and when next day, taking a fowling-piece, powder, and shot, Dantes declared his intention to go and kill some of the wild goats that were seen springing from rock to rock, his wish was construed into a love of sport, or a desire for solitude.†   (source)
  • 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.†   (source)
  • If the individual so resisted be of a not inhumane temper, and the resisting one perfectly harmless in his passivity; then, in the better moods of the former, he will endeavor charitably to construe to his imagination what proves impossible to be solved by his judgment.†   (source)
  • Tom had been used to be so entirely satisfied with himself, in spite of his breaking down in a demonstration, and construing nunc illas promite vires as "now promise those men"; but now he suddenly felt at a disadvantage, because he knew less than some one else knew.†   (source)
  • There was a certain cynicism in these mute comments which demands an explanation; the more so as they are not in accord either with the view—somewhat superficial perhaps—that we have hitherto enjoyed of Madame Merle's character or with the literal facts of Mrs. Touchett's history; the more so, too, as Madame Merle had a well-founded conviction that her friend's last remark was not in the least to be construed as a side-thrust at herself.†   (source)
  • He construed the latter into an act of hostility, and, placing his hands in the pockets again, he walked up to Mr. Grant, and, putting his face close to the countenance of the divine, said in an undertone: "Now, mark my words—there will be a story among the settlers, that all our necks would have been broken but for that fellow—as if I did not know how to drive.†   (source)
  • Heyward paused, for he knew not how to construe the remarkable expression that gleamed across the swarthy features of the attentive Indian.†   (source)
  • He returns to call to a fearful reckoning, those who, during his absence, have done aught that can be construed offence or encroachment upon either the laws of the land or the privileges of the crown.†   (source)
  • She used to consult him on passages of French which she could not understand, though her mother was a Frenchwoman, and which he would construe to her satisfaction: and, besides giving her his aid in profane literature, he was kind enough to select for her books of a more serious tendency, and address to her much of his conversation.†   (source)
  • The lip of the youth slightly curled, and he regarded the old man with an expression, which might easily have been construed into a declaration that such were not his own recollections of his venerable and revered ancestor, though it would seem he did not think it necessary to say as much in words.†   (source)
  • I was fully old enough now to be apprenticed to Joe; and when Joe sat with the poker on his knees thoughtfully raking out the ashes between the lower bars, my sister would so distinctly construe that innocent action into opposition on his part, that she would dive at him, take the poker out of his hands, shake him, and put it away.†   (source)
  • I thought it likely Dr. Flint would do his utmost to taunt and insult him, and I was afraid my uncle might lose control of himself, and retort in some way that would be construed into a punishable offence; and I was well aware that in court his word would not be taken against any white man's.†   (source)
  • 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.†   (source)
  • The movement had been construed into contempt, and even the tempers of the chiefs began to be excited.†   (source)
  • The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.†   (source)
  • At any rate, upon the occasion in question, I strove to drown my exasperated feelings towards the scrivener by benevolently construing his conduct.†   (source)
  • The desire to know that one has not looked an absolute fright during a few hours of conversation may be construed as lying within the bounds of a laudable benevolent consideration for others.†   (source)
  • The two lovers—the old one and the new: how she wanted to marry the second, but felt she ought to marry the first; so that she neglected the better course to follow the evil, like the poet Ovid I've just been construing: 'Video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor.'†   (source)
  • But canst thou construe me this, Sir Knight—When is thy wine-pitcher and thy purse better empty than full?†   (source)
  • Then they seemed so familiar with French names and French authors: but my amazement reached its climax when Miss Temple asked Helen if she sometimes snatched a moment to recall the Latin her father had taught her, and taking a book from a shelf, bade her read and construe a page of Virgil; and Helen obeyed, my organ of veneration expanding at every sounding line.†   (source)
  • The chiefs in front scarce cast a glance at his person, keeping their eyes on the ground, with an air that might have been intended for respect, but which it was quite easy to construe into distrust.†   (source)
  • "Ay, ay—construe us the story," said a burly Friar, who stood beside them, leaning on a pole that exhibited an appearance between a pilgrim's staff and a quarter-staff, and probably acted as either when occasion served,—"Your story," said the stalwart churchman; "burn not daylight about it—we have short time to spare."†   (source)
  • Article XI The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.†   (source)
  • Here he raised his hand several times, with the palm outwards, and made several of those other signs, which are construed into a pledge of amicable intentions among the inhabitants of those regions.†   (source)
  • There he turned, and, in the sweeping and haughty glance that he threw around the circle of his enemies, Duncan caught a look which he was glad to construe into an expression that he was not entirely deserted by hope.†   (source)
  • Every line that could possibly be interpreted into a secret inclination for war, was carefully avoided; while, on the other hand, he studied those conceits that might be construed into amity.†   (source)
  • All men have their enemies, good Sir Sluggard; and there be those malignant enough to construe the hospitable refreshment which I have been offering to you, a weary traveller, for the matter of three short hours, into sheer drunkenness and debauchery, vices alike alien to my profession and my disposition.†   (source)
  • But," he added, with an air of chagrin, which he endeavored, though unsuccessfully, to conceal, "had I been aware that what I then believed a soldier's conduct could be so construed, shame would have been added to the list of reasons."†   (source)
  • That of the serf, or bondsman, was sad and sullen; his aspect was bent on the ground with an appearance of deep dejection, which might be almost construed into apathy, had not the fire which occasionally sparkled in his red eye manifested that there slumbered, under the appearance of sullen despondency, a sense of oppression, and a disposition to resistance.†   (source)
  • Amendment IX The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.†   (source)
  • This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.†   (source)
  • The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.†   (source)
  • The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.†   (source)
  • Gregor would sometimes catch a friendly comment, or at least a comment that could be construed as friendly.   (source)
    construed = interpreted
  • I can construe the action of her familiar style   (source)
    construe = interpret (understand the implications of)
  • But men may construe things after their fashion,
    Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.   (source)
    construe = understand something to have a specific meaning
  • All my engagements I will construe to thee,   (source)
    construe = explain
  • Now let me see if I can construe it:   (source)
    construe = understand something to have a specific meaning
  • But let not therefore my good friends be grieved--
    Among which number, Cassius, be you one--
    Nor construe any further my neglect,
    Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war,
    Forgets the shows of love to other men.   (source)
  • "Thank you," I said, choosing to construe this as a compliment.†   (source)
  • Construe my speeches better, if you may.†   (source)
  • Since maids, in modesty, say 'No' to that Which they would have the profferer construe 'Ay.'†   (source)
  • Nought wist he what this Latin was tosay,* *meant
    For he so young and tender was of age;
    But on a day his fellow gan he pray
    To expound him this song in his language,
    Or tell him why this song was in usage:
    This pray'd he him to construe and declare,
    Full oftentime upon his knees bare.†   (source)
  • The power of coinage has been so construed by Congress as to levy a tribute immediately from that source also.†   (source)
  • This behaviour in her niece the good lady construed to be an absolute breach of the condition on which she had engaged to keep her love for Mr Jones a secret.†   (source)
  • I will construe to them whence you come; who you are and what you would are out of my welkin: I might say element; but the word is overworn.†   (source)
  • O, my good Lord Mowbray, Construe the times to their necessities, And you shall say indeed, it is the time, And not the king, that doth you injuries.†   (source)
  • To cozen him of all, were but a cheat Well placed; no man would construe it a sin: Let his sport pay for it, this is call'd the Fox-trap.†   (source)
  • Now will I question Cassio of Bianca, A housewife that, by selling her desires, Buys herself bread and clothes: it is a creature That dotes on Cassio,—as 'tis the strumpet's plague To beguile many and be beguil'd by one:— He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain From the excess of laughter:—here he comes:— As he shall smile Othello shall go mad; And his unbookish jealousy must construe Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures, and light behavior Quite in the wrong.†   (source)
  • Construe either of these articles by the rules which would justify the construction put on the new Constitution, and they vest in the existing Congress a power to legislate in all cases whatsoever.†   (source)
  • Construe them.†   (source)
  • "I wish you would construe them," cries Partridge; "for Horace is a hard author, and I cannot understand as you repeat them."†   (source)
  • Remember them only yourself so far as for the future to teach you the better to avoid them; but still remember, for your comfort, that there is this great difference between those faults which candor may construe into imprudence, and those which can be deduced from villany only.†   (source)
  • In the first place, there is not a syllable in the plan under consideration which DIRECTLY empowers the national courts to construe the laws according to the spirit of the Constitution, or which gives them any greater latitude in this respect than may be claimed by the courts of every State.†   (source)
  • You recall to my mind that cruel separation of the united fraternities, so much to the prejudice of both bodies, as all separations must be, according to the old adage, Vis unita fortior; which to be sure there are not wanting some of one or of the other fraternity who are able to construe.†   (source)
  • From this circumstance, and from the reason of the thing, it ought to be construed to extend to the State tribunals.†   (source)
  • Partridge then proceeded thus: "In the parish where I was born, there lived a farmer whose name was Bridle, and he had a son named Francis, a good hopeful young fellow: I was at the grammar-school with him, where I remember he was got into Ovid's Epistles, and he could construe you three lines together sometimes without looking into a dictionary.†   (source)
  • A proceeding of this kind, out of the usual course, would be likely to be construed into an argument of timidity or of weakness, and would have a tendency to embolden guilt.†   (source)
  • The United States, in their united or collective capacity, are the OBJECT to which all general provisions in the Constitution must necessarily be construed to refer.†   (source)
  • In short he hath killed a man; I will not say murdered—for perhaps it may not be so construed in law, and I hope the best for his sake.†   (source)
  • And at this the reader will be the less inclined to wonder, if he pleases to recollect the doubtful phrase in which Jones first communicated his resolution to Mr Partridge; and, indeed, had the words been less ambiguous, Partridge might very well have construed them as he did; being persuaded as he was that the whole nation were of the same inclination in their hearts; nor did it stagger him that Jones had travelled in the company of soldiers; for he had the same opinion of the army which he had of the rest of the people.†   (source)
  • If this clause is to be considered as supplementary to the one which precedes, the VACANCIES of which it speaks must be construed to relate to the "officers" described in the preceding one; and this, we have seen, excludes from its description the members of the Senate.†   (source)
  • The power of construing the laws according to the SPIRIT of the Constitution, will enable that court to mould them into whatever shape it may think proper; especially as its decisions will not be in any manner subject to the revision or correction of the legislative body.†   (source)
  • In these Mrs Western herself began to talk to her in a more peremptory stile than before: but her father treated her in so violent and outrageous a manner, that he frightened her into an affected compliance with his will; which so highly pleased the good squire, that he changed his frowns into smiles, and his menaces into promises: he vowed his whole soul was wrapt in hers; that her consent (for so he construed the words, "You know, sir, I must not, nor can, refuse to obey any absolute command of yours") had made him the happiest of mankind.†   (source)
  • The generosity of Sophia's temper construed this behaviour of Jones into great bravery; and it made a deep impression on her heart: for certain it is, that there is no one quality which so generally recommends men to women as this; proceeding, if we believe the common opinion, from that natural timidity of the sex, which is, says Mr Osborne, "so great, that a woman is the most cowardly of all the creatures God ever made;"—a sentiment more remarkable for its bluntness than for its truth.†   (source)
  • To dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States, with a proviso, that nothing in the Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular State.†   (source)
  • This might either be construed to signify, that the supreme and subordinate courts of the Union should alone have the power of deciding those causes to which their authority is to extend; or simply to denote, that the organs of the national judiciary should be one Supreme Court, and as many subordinate courts as Congress should think proper to appoint; or in other words, that the United States should exercise the judicial power with which they are to be invested, through one supreme tribunal, and a certain number of inferior ones, to be instituted by them.†   (source)
  • Had the convention taken the first method of adopting the second article of Confederation, it is evident that the new Congress would be continually exposed, as their predecessors have been, to the alternative of construing the term "EXPRESSLY" with so much rigor, as to disarm the government of all real authority whatever, or with so much latitude as to destroy altogether the force of the restriction.†   (source)
  • …and though the darkness sometimes lifted just enough so I could construe my surroundings, familiar shapes solidifying like bedroom furniture at dawn, my relief was never more than temporary because somehow the full morning never came, things always went black before I could orient myself and there I was again…   (source)
    construe = understand
  • I didn't dream that you would construe the way I feel about what I did to you to mean that last night wasn't… well, the best night of my existence.   (source)
    construe = understand something to have a specific meaning
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