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Constitution; mode of construction, organization, etc.; system; as, a republican form of government.

The manner in which a thing is formed; structure; construction; conformation; form; as, the peculiar formation of the heart.

hape around which an article is to be shaped, molded, woven wrapped, pasted, or otherwise constructed.

The strong point; that in which one excels. fort"a The construction of a fable seems by no means the forte of our modern poetical writers. Jeffrey.

One of the great military roads constructed by the Romans in England and other parts of Europe; -- so called from the fosse or ditch on each side for keeping it dry.

To construct by fitting and uniting the several parts of the skeleton of any structure; specifically, in woodwork, to put together by cutting parts of one member to fit parts of another. See Dovetail, Halve, v. t., Miter, Tenon, Tooth, Tusk, Scarf, and Splice.

The work of framing, or the completed work; the frame or constructional part of anything; as, the framework of society. A staunch and solid piece of framework. Milton.

The act, process, or style of putting together a frame, or of constructing anything; a frame; that which frames.

A trap or snare. [Obs.] To draw the proud King Ahab into fraud. Milton. Constructive fraud (Law), an act, statement, or omission which operates as a fraud, although perhaps not intended to be such. Mozley & W. -- Pious fraud (Ch. Hist.), a fraud contrived and executed to benefit the church or accomplish some good end,…

In certain constructions, as from forth, from out, etc., the ordinary and more obvious arrangment is inverted, the sense being more distinctly forth from, out from -- from being virtually the governing preposition, and the word the adverb. See From off, under Off, adv., and From afar, under Afar, adv. Sudden partings s…

wall of a building, usually the principal entrance. -- Front of fortification, the works constructed upon any one side of a polygon. Farrow. -- Front of operations, all that part of the field of operations in front of the successive positions occupied by the army as it moves forward. Farrow. -- To come to the front,…

A vessel of Anam, with two or three masts, lofty triangular sails, and in construction somewhat resembling a Chinese junk.

The genitive case. Genitive absolute, a construction in Greek similar to the ablative absolute in Latin. See Ablative absolute.

To investigate or apprehend geometrical quantities or laws; to make geometrical constructions; to proceed in accordance with the principles of geometry. Nature geometrizeth, and observeth order in all things. Sir T. Browne.

A thermometer specially constructed for measuring temperetures at a depth below the surface of the ground.

A construction consisting essentially of one or more aëroplanes for gliding in an inclined path from a height to the ground.

or nearly so; as, globular atoms. Milton. Globular chart, a chart of the earth's surface constructed on the principles of the globular projection. -- Globular projection (Map Projection), a perspective projection of the surface of a hemisphere upon a plane parallel to the base of the hemisphere, the point of sight be…

rives its name from the connection between the methods of describing it and those for the construction of a gnomon or dial." Cyc. of Arts & Sciences.

The art or science of dialing, or of constructing dials to show the hour of the day by the shadow of a gnomon.

A species of wood used in the construction of Noah's ark. Gen. vi. 14.