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Wordnet 3.0

ADJECTIVE (2)

1. constructing or tending to construct or improve or promote development;
- Example: "constructive criticism"
- Example: "a constructive attitude"
- Example: "a constructive philosophy"
- Example: "constructive permission"

2. emphasizing what is laudable or hopeful or to the good;
- Example: "constructive criticism"


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

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]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

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"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

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
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

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.