Constructive

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Constructive \Con*struct"ive\, a. [Cf. F. constructif.]
     1. Having ability to construct or form; employed in
        construction; as, to exhibit constructive power.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The constructive fingers of Watts.    --Emerson.


        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Derived from, or depending on, construction, inference, or
        interpretation; not directly expressed, but inferred.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. helpful; promoting improvement; intended to help; as,
        constructive criticism; constructive suggestions.
        Contrasted with {destructive}.
        [PJC]
  
     {Constructive crimes} (Law), acts having effects analogous to
        those of some statutory or common law crimes; as,
        constructive treason. Constructive crimes are no longer
        recognized by the courts.
  
     {Constructive notice}, notice imputed by construction of law.
        
  
     {Constructive trust}, a trust which may be assumed to exist,
        though no actual mention of it be made.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  constructive
       adj 1: constructing or tending to construct or improve or promote
              development; "constructive criticism"; "a constructive
              attitude"; "a constructive philosophy"; "constructive
              permission" [ant: {destructive}]
       2: emphasizing what is laudable or hopeful or to the good;
          "constructive criticism"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  46 Moby Thesaurus words for "constructive":
     advantageous, aidful, beneficial, causative, conducive,
     construable, constructional, contributory, creative, deduced,
     definitional, demiurgic, derived, descriptive, diagnostic,
     exegetic, formative, furthersome, generative, good for, helpful,
     hermeneutic, implicit, inferential, inferred, interpretable,
     interpretational, interpretive, inventive, originative, positive,
     practicable, practical, productive, profitable, ratiocinative,
     remedial, renderable, salutary, semeiological, serviceable,
     symptomatological, therapeutic, tropological, useful, virtual
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  constructive
       
           A proof that something exists is "constructive"
          if it provides a method for actually constructing it.
          {Cantor}'s proof that the {real number}s are {uncountable} can
          be thought of as a *non-constructive* proof that {irrational
          number}s exist.  (There are easy constructive proofs, too; but
          there are existence theorems with no known constructive
          proof).
       
          Obviously, all else being equal, constructive proofs are
          better than non-constructive proofs.  A few mathematicians
          actually reject *all* non-constructive arguments as invalid;
          this means, for instance, that the law of the {excluded
          middle} (either P or not-P must hold, whatever P is) has to
          go; this makes proof by contradiction invalid.  See
          {intuitionistic logic} for more information on this.
       
          Most mathematicians are perfectly happy with non-constructive
          proofs; however, the constructive approach is popular in
          theoretical computer science, both because computer scientists
          are less given to abstraction than mathematicians and because
          {intuitionistic logic} turns out to be the right theory for a
          theoretical treatment of the foundations of computer science.
       
          (1995-04-13)
       
       

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  CONSTRUCTIVE. That which is interpreted. 
       2. Constructive presence. The commission of crimes, is, when a party is 
  not actually present, an eyewitness to its commission but, acting with 
  others, watching while another commits the crime. 1 Russ. Cr. 22. 
       3. Constructive larceny. One where the taking was not apparently 
  felonious, but by construction of the prisoner's acts it is just to presume 
  he intended at the time of taking to appropriate the property feloniously to 
  his own use; 2 East, P. C. 685; 1 Leach, 212; as when he obtained the 
  delivery of the goods animo furandi. 2 N. & M. 90. See 15 S. & R. 93; 4 
  Mass. 580; I Bay, 242. 
       4. Constructive breaking into a house. In order to commit a burglary, 
  there must be a breaking of the house; this may be actual or constructive. A 
  constructive breaking is when the burglar gains an entry into the house by 
  fraud, conspiracy, or threat. See Burglary, A familiar instance of 
  constructive breaking is the case of a burglar who coming to the house under 
  pretence of business, gains admittance, and after being admitted, commits 
  such acts as, if there had been an actual brooking, would have amounted to a 
  burglary Bac. Ab. Burglary, A. See 1 Moody Cr. Cas. 87, 250. 
       5. Constructive notice. Such a notice, that although it be not actual, 
  is sufficient in law; an example of this is the recording of a deed, which 
  is notice to all the world, and so is the pendancy of a suit a general 
  notice of an equity. 4 Bouv. Inst. n. 3874. See Lis pendens. 
       6. Constructive annexation. The annexation to the inheritance by the 
  law, of certain things which are not actually attached to it; for example, 
  the keys of a house; and heir looms are constructively annexed. Shep. Touch. 
  90; Poth. Traits des Choses, Sec. 1. 
       7. Constructive fraud. A contract or act, which, not originating in 
  evil design and contrivance to perpetuate a positive fraud or injury upon 
  other persons, yet, by its necessary tendency to deceive or mislead them, or 
  to violate a public or private confidence, or to impair or injure public 
  interest, is deemed equally reprehensible with positive fraud, and therefore 
  is prohibited by law, as within the same reason and mischief as contracts 
  and acts done malo animo. 1 Story, Eq. Sec. 258 to 440.