constructive

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"
    

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]
    

constructive

   <mathematics> A proof that something exists is "constructive"
   if it provides a method for actually constructing it.
   {Cantor}'s proof that the {real numbers} are {uncountable} can
   be thought of as a *non-constructive* proof that {irrational
   numbers} 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)
    

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. 
    

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