a. [ad. med.L. constructīv-us, f. construct- ppl. stem: see -IVE. Cf. F. constructif, -ive, 15th c. in Godef.]
1. Having the quality of constructing; given to construction.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess., Intellect, Wks. (Bohn), I. 139. The constructive intellect produces thoughts, sentences, poems, plans, designs, systems.
1876. J. H. Newman, Hist. Sk., II. III. vii. 345. Cyril was a clear-headed, constructive theologian.
1878. Lecky, Eng. in 18th C., II. viii. 514. We look in vain … for any signs of administrative or constructive talent.
2. Of or pertaining to construction.
1817. Lett., in Coleridge, Biog. Lit., I. xiii. 293. I look forward anxiously to your great book on the constructive philosophy.
1877. S. J. Owen, Wellesley’s Desp., p. xxix. There was no hope of any constructive, wise, and political development from such a quarter.
1889. Whitaker’s Alm., 214. Naval Service … Constructive and Engineering Staff.
3. Belonging to the construction or structure of a building, etc.; structural, constructional.
1865. J. Fergusson, Hist. Arch., I. 25. Architectural ornament is of two kinds, constructive and decorative. By the former is meant all those contrivances, such as capitals, brackets, vaulting shafts, and the like, which serve to explain or give expression to the construction.
1874. Micklethwaite, Mod. Par. Churches, 212. Design should be based upon constructive exigencies.
4. Deduced by construction or interpretation; resulting from a certain interpretation; not directly expressed, but inferred; inferential, virtual; often applied in legal language to what in the eye of the law amounts to the act or condition specified.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 282. Will an implicit constructive Acknowledgment bind those, whom solemn Oaths and Vows to Almighty God cannot hold?
1681. Trial of S. Colledge, 51. A seizing of the King … is a constructive intention of the death of the King; for Kings are never Prisoners, but in order to their death.
a. 1852. D. Webster, Wks. (1877), IV. 107. The power of control and direction … is derived, by those who maintain it, from the right of removal: that is to say, it is a constructive power: it has an express warrant in the Constitution.
1865. Lubbock, Preh. Times, iv. (1878), 165. Thus the customs of a tribe may … forbid marriage with one set of constructive sisters or brothers.
b. Hence constructive blasphemy, contempt, notice, possession, treason, trust, etc.
Constructive total loss (in Marine Insurance): the assumption of the loss of a ship or cargo as total under certain circumstances, as when arrival or recovery seems highly improbable, or the cost of the repairs promises to exceed the value, the owner abandoning to the insurers all claim to the ship and receiving the amount insured.
a. 1714. Burnet, Own Time, an. 1682 (T.). It was not possible to make it look even like a constructive treason.
1769. Blackstone, Comm., IV. 75. The creatures of tyrannical princes had opportunity to create abundance of constructive treasons; that is, to raise, by forced and arbitrary constructions, offences into the crime and punishment of treason, which never were suspected to be such.
1789. Durnford & East, Reports, III. 466. The necessity of an actual possession by the bankrupt, in contradistinction to a constructive possession by the intervention of an agent.
a. 1797. H. Walpole, Mem. Geo. III., x. (1845), 319. It was at most constructive blasphemy.
1848. Arnould, Mar. Insur. (1866), I. I. iv. 170. Cases of constructive total loss.
