Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To break down into components; dismantle.
- transitive verb To analyze (a literary text, for example) by deconstruction or in such a way as to expose its underlying assumptions or implicit ideological stance.
- transitive verb To adapt (a genre, style, or form) in a way that isolates familiar elements from their usual context in order to imply an ironic comment on the unspoken values of the original.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To take apart (what has been put together); undo the construction of; undo (what has been done).
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To interpret (a text or an artwork) by the method of deconstruction.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb often metaphorical To
break something down into itscomponent parts .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb interpret (a text or an artwork) by the method of deconstructing
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Being able to "deconstruct" requires speaking and understanding a certain type of language, and subscribing to certain intellectual theories.
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I've found that when I "deconstruct" an art to develop variations, my original notes seem very simplistic.
Notes to Myself Steve Perry 2009
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And so if you don't beat the military uniform hard enough, we like to drop the roll, like, as soon as we put the fiber, the combat paper project through its workshops seeks to allow the veteran to kind of deconstruct their uniform and deconstruct their experiences in a very comfortable environment and create cathartic works of art.
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It might be helpful to "deconstruct" this conversation.
Imperfect World, Imperfect Bible James F. McGrath 2009
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But what I wanted to mention was how much I enjoyed the recent Simpson's Super Spectactular that criticized all these writers who always want to "deconstruct" some long running hero in a grim and cynical way.
Comics' Numerical Nightmare Brian Hughes 2008
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To "deconstruct" philosophy, thus, would be to think-—in the most faithful, interior way—-the structured genealogy of philosophy's concepts, but at the same time to determine—-from a certain exterior that is unqualifiable or unnameable by philosophy—-what this history has been able to dissimulate or forbid, making itself into a history by means of this somewhere motivated repression.
enowning enowning 2008
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Callow wants to "deconstruct" the Welles story, see the real man who made himself a myth in cahoots with a pushover press.
Citizen Welles 2008
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To "deconstruct" philosophy, thus, would be to think-—in the most faithful, interior way—-the structured genealogy of philosophy's concepts, but at the same time to determine—-from a certain exterior that is unqualifiable or unnameable by philosophy—-what this history has been able to dissimulate or forbid, making itself into a history by means of this somewhere motivated repression.
Archive 2008-07-01 enowning 2008
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The left that so loves to "deconstruct" everything about Western culture and faith can't seem to recognize their own new religion or their zealous resistance to any deconstruction of their new god object.
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2008
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You say we should "deconstruct" all truth claims (a founder of "deconstructionism," Paul de Man. whose writings are still influential in American universities, was a Belgian fascist) because there are no facts, only opinions?
backroadsbyron commented on the word deconstruct
I have never seen this word used until the last year or two, and just the other day I saw deconstruct used by a sports writer. The first time I saw it was in an art lecture anouncement. I thought why don't they use words the common people can understand, snobs. I would be hard pressed to use deconstruct....meaningless to most of us....let's deconstruct the myth of the Federal Reserve.
March 31, 2009