[f. the vb.] An act of construing in the grammatical sense, esp. as an exercise in learning a classical language; a verbal translation.
1844. J. T. Hewlett, Parsons & W., xv. These debates interfered sadly with construes, exercises, and repetitions.
1865. Etoniana, viii. 138. An early construe with his tutor.
1885. W. F. Hobson in N. & Q., 17 Jan., 46/1. The misapprehension arose, probably, from a wrong construe of another edition, where the word plebeios [= vulgares] … was mistaken for a noun.
Mod. Give me a construe of the passage.
