Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CON-STRUC'TION, n. [L. constructio.]

1. The act of building, or of devising and forming; fabrication.
2. The form of building; the manner of putting together the parts of a building, a machine, or a system; structure; conformation. The sailing of a ship and its capacity depend chiefly on its construction.
3. In grammar, syntax, or the arrangement and connection of words in a sentence, according to established usages, or the practice of good writers and speakers.
4. Sense; meaning; interpretation; explanation; or the manner of understanding the arrangement of words or of understanding facts. Let us find the true construction; or let us give the author's words a sound, rational, consistent construction. What construction can be put upon this affair, or upon the conduct of a man?
5. The manner of describing a figure or problem in geometry. – Johnson. The drawing of such lines, such figure, &c., as are previously necessary for making any demonstration appear more plain and undeniable. – Encyc.
6. In algebra, the construction of equations, is the method of reducing a known equation into lines and figures, in order to a geometrical demonstration. – Johnson.