constructionn.

c1440 Promptorium Parvulorum 91 Construccyon or construynge, construccio.

?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1865) I. 19 The construccion of the cite of Rome.

1727 J. Arbuthnot Tables Anc. Coins 259 The Construction of Ships was forbidden to Senators.

1837 H. Martineau Society in Amer. II. 186 From whence a [railroad] line is now in course of construction to the Hudson.

1849 E. A. Freeman Hist. Archit. 198 Others have only an arch of construction above the flat lintel.

1841–8 F. Myers Catholic Thoughts II. iv. xxv. 302 The Mosaic system was the first construction of a special instrumentality for a special end.

1842 J. Gwilt Encycl. Archit. Gloss. 956 Construction... Amongst architects it is more particularly used to denote the art of distributing the different forces and strains of the parts and materials of a building in so scientific a manner as to avoid failure and insure durability.

1864 C. Vaux Villas & Cottages 70 To study the capabilities and varieties of wooden construction.

1891 Graphic 28 Feb. [The] Assistant-Controller of the Navy and Director of Naval Construction, who has designed the new ships.

1707 tr. P. Le Lorrain de Vallemont Curiosities in Husbandry & Gardening 28 The Order and..Construction of their essential or organical Parts.

1791 Gentleman's Mag. 61 ii. 769 To build it [a dry dock] with a timberfloor of a new and peculiar construction.

1799 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 1 461 The bad construction of the hospitals.

1841 T. R. Jones Gen. Outl. Animal Kingdom xv. 255 Beneath the mandibles is situated another pair of jaws, of similar construction.

1866 C. Engel Introd. Study National Music i. 15 The rather unusual rhythmical construction of six bars in the first part, and eight in the second.

1826 B. Disraeli Vivian Grey II. iii. vii. 90 At last, he burst forth with an immense deal of science, and a great want of construction—a want, which scientific men often experience.

1570 H. Billingsley tr. Euclid Elements Geom. i. f. 9 Then is set the construction of suche things which are necessary ether for the doing of the proposition, or for the demonstration.

1660 tr. I. Barrow Euclide's Elements i. 10 The construction, and the demonstration, are every where alike.

1840 D. Lardner Treat. Geom. 133 Of the construction of equal and similar figures.

1882 G. M. Minchin Uniplanar Kinematics 57 Graphic construction for Resultant Acceleration.

1828 Moore's Pract. Navigator (ed. 20) 41 By construction.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. Construction of Equations, is the Method of reducing a known Equation into Lines and Figures; whereby the Truth of the Rule, Canon, or Equation, may be demonstrated geometrically.

1884 tr. H. Lotze Logic 123 A generic concept derived from experience, the inner organisation of which can only be represented imperfectly by description, not exactly by construction.

1796 J. Morse Amer. Universal Geogr. (new ed.) II. 424 The subterraneous constructions of Italy are as stupendous as those above ground.

1862 M. Hopkins Hawaii 71 A number of other constructions were discovered.

1875 H. J. S. Maine Lect. Early Hist. Inst. i. 11 The Brehon laws are in no sense a legislative construction.

1924 H. Carter New Theatre Soviet Russia 71 Instead of painted planes he [sc. Meierhold] uses constructions in volumes made of wood, iron and other suitable material.

1924 H. Carter New Theatre Soviet Russia 72 Construction as it is now understood as an aid to acting and nothing more..arrived in April, 1922.

1929 H. Carter New Spirit Russ. Theatre 221 The bridge of Life and Death that forms the chief construction on the Japanese stage.

1929 Encycl. Brit. XXII. 34/2 High platforms, skeletonized structures, inclined planes, all manner of bare, unsentimentalized construction provide the footing as well as the background for the actors.

1944 H. Read in Horizon July 63 Dear Gabo,..it is easier for me to sympathize with those lovers of art who but dimly apprehend the formal unity of one of your constructions.

1956 F. Gore Abstract Art 30 Arp is opposed to the ‘technoid’ constructions of Mondrian.

1964 H. Read Hist. Mod. Sculpture iii. 89 From 1914 onwards a group of artists in Moscow attempted to apply engineering techniques to the construction of sculpture, and the objects thus made were called ‘constructions’.

1591 R. Percyvall Bibliotheca Hispanica Gram. sig. E3 Construction is the apt ioining of words in framing of a sentence.

1612 J. Brinsley Posing of Parts f. 26

1656 J. Smith Myst. Rhetorique Unvail'd 130 Prolepsis is also a figure of Construction.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. Construction,..the arranging and connecting the Words of a Sentence; according to the Rules of the Language.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 137 There is nat a more straunger construction in all this tonge.

1571 A. Golding tr. J. Calvin Psalmes of Dauid with Comm. (lv. 20) I cannot tell whither the construction will beare it or no.

1640 Sir R. Baker in C. H. Spurgeon Treasury of David (1870) I. Ps. i. 2 That stands in construction with all tenses.

1669 J. Milton Accedence 41 Construction consisteth either in the agreement of words together..which is call'd Concord; or the governing of one the other in such Case or Mood as is to follow.

1767 H. Walpole Narr. Rousseau 133 He changed the construction of the last phrase, though the thought remained exactly the same.

1876 C. P. Mason Eng. Gram. (ed. 21) Pref. Help towards the understanding of the more difficult constructions.

1762 J. Parkhurst Hebrew & Eng. Lexicon p. iv A Noun is said to be in Regimine, or in Construction, when it is in a particular relation to a Noun following it.

1592 A. Day 2nd Pt. Eng. Secretorie sig. E3^v, in Eng. Secretorie (rev. ed.) To admit me fauorable and indifferent construction, of what I shal here vnfould vnto you by writing.

1600 W. Shakespeare Much Ado about Nothing iii. iv. 45 O illegitimate construction! I scorne that with my heeles. View more context for this quotation

1609 C. Tourneur Funerall Poeme sig. C2 The bitter censures of malignancies, In managements so subiect to construction.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) i. iv. 12 To finde the Mindes construction in the Face. View more context for this quotation

a1656 Bp. J. Hall Shaking of Olive-tree (1660) ii. 82 A charitable construction of each others acts and intentions.

1677 W. Hubbard Narr. Troubles with Indians New-Eng. ii. 38 To put the best Construction might be, on such Irregular actions.

1705 G. Stanhope Paraphr. III. 499 Some Good may be done, though at the Expence of Envy and ill Construction.

1828 W. Scott Fair Maid of Perth vii, in Chron. Canongate 2nd Ser. I. 174 Since such is the construction that is put upon my patience.

1869 J. Martineau Ess. Philos. & Theol. 2nd Ser. 126 Locke..guards himself..against any such construction.

1528 J. Skelton Honorificatissimo: Replycacion agaynst Yong Scolers sig. Av Ye may soone make construction With right lytell instruction.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor (1623) ii. ii. 216 There is shrewd construction made of her. View more context for this quotation

1620 F. Bacon Let. 19 Mar. in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1827) III. 236 I humblye praye your Lordships to make a favourable and true construction of my absence.

1740 S. Richardson Pamela I. xiv. 27 He would have made a less angry Construction, had I less deserved that he should do so.

1848 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxi Facts which would bear two constructions.

1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Surueyeng i. sig. B3^v To the declaracyon and constructyon of this statute, etc.

1651 N. Bacon Contin. Hist. Disc. Govt. xiii. 117 By the Resignation of Richard the Second, the Parliament might seem, in strict construction of Law, to be expired.

1768 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. III. 226 By an equitable construction of the statute of Glocester.

1845 H. J. Stephen New Comm. Laws Eng. II. 63 The construction or interpretation of a contract.

1890 Ld. Halsbury in Law Times Rep. 64 3/2 The question..turns upon the true construction of the Waterworks Clauses Act, 1847.

1569 R. Grafton Chron. II. 1324 The true meaning of which statute, they did impugne & ouerthrowe by diuers subtile and sinister constructions of the same.

1612 F. Bacon Ess. (new ed.) 213 Iudges must beware of hard constructions, and strained inferences.

1827 T. Jarman Powell's Ess. Learning of Devises (ed. 3) II. 329 The Master of the Rolls..adopted the latter construction.

1890 Sir N. Lindley in Law Times Rep. 63 690/1 Forcing upon this order a construction which would not be put upon it by those who are in the habit of dealing with orders in this form.