construction. The act or method of placing points in a written or printed instrument. 2. By the word point is here understood all the points in grammar, as the comma, the semicolon, the colon, and the like. 3. All such instruments are to be construed without any regard to the punctuation; and in a case of doubt, they ought to be construed in such a manner that they may have some effect, rather than in one in which they would be nugatory.