Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Performed with haste and scant attention to detail: a cursory glance at the headlines.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Running about; not stationary.
- In entomology, adapted for running, as the feet of many terrestrial beetles; cursorial.
- Hasty; slight; superficial; careless; not exercising or receiving close attention: as, a cursory reader; a cursory view.
Wiktionary
- adj. hasty; superficial; careless
- adj. obsolete Running about; not stationary.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. obsolete Running about; not stationary.
- adj. Characterized by haste; hastily or superficially performed; slight; superficial; careless.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough
Etymologies
- From Latin cursorius (Wiktionary)
- Late Latin cursōrius, of running, from Latin cursor, runner; see cursor. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Principal Steve Perry doesn't believe in cursory inspections.”
“Giving a detailed answer to all of them, even in cursory fashion, would make a small volume.”
“Indeed, most of the instances of the term a cursory Google search of whitehouse. gov uncovers come in questions from the media”
“The vast majority of them are illiterate and slap on a uniform after receiving what can only charitably be described as cursory instruction in military tactics and the handling of an assault rifle.”
The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Contractors Shouldn't Face Iraqi Courts
“The students were asked to sign what was described as a cursory three-page consent form.”
“Sun Mar 22, 2009 at 09: 59: 47 AM EDT wrote this morning what could generously be described as a cursory look at the Indiana Toll Road, hesitating just long enough from a wide-eyed respect of Gov.”
“Sen. Patrick Leahy said the decision constituted a 'default of U.S. leadership' and charged that it appeared to be based on a review that 'can only be described as cursory and half-hearted'.”
“Ellis agrees that "that sequence does seem kind of cursory" – but only, he goes on, because Clay is so numbly affectless that even rape and torture would look banal to him.”
“Mr. Cook played better than he has ever done for England, dominating as he rarely has before, passing 150 and 200 with the kind of cursory celebrations that indicated he was intent on scoring, as he put it, a daddy hundred.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cursory’.
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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@vcb.etym.prjct - SAT WORD DUMP - as ...
The words on this list SAT regulars that I haven't sorted and grouped yet. It's like my wordy holding pen. get it? holding the pen to write a word? HA! I love how lame my humor is.
iconoclast, glacial, agnostic, histrionic, treacly, contemptuous, captious, bombastic, bombast, perfidy, quiescence, sordid and 148 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Impressionism
Words that describe the art of the impressionist era.
seascapes, landscapes, modern, impression, impressionist, contemporary, flicker, sensation, modernity, perceived, perceiving, momentary and 142 more...
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gre
municipal, whit, dissembler, berate, liberally, embellish, dissimilitude, histrionics, flamboyance, bombastic, bovine, calumny and 142 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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EN - eloquence in public speaking
Key words from "The Training of a Public Speaker" by Grenville Kleiser (New York and London, 1920)
beget, imago, Vespasian, languid, studied, judgment, dwindle, artifice, contribute, observe, sonorous, gladiator and 264 more...
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List 2(starting at 260)
mammoth, overt, valor, aspire, relegate, bias, incisive, scurry, precipitate, singular, inveigh, repulse and 48 more...
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GRE 1100
drudgery, implore, hapless, nuance, wrest, incipient, inadvertent, tremulous, bristle, euphemism, disdain, pugnacious and 346 more...
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brian's biffs
melancholy, bucolic, visceral, cacophony, burlesque, exogenous, epiphany, monetization, accretive, opulent, splendid, seismic and 10 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Words
My list of words.
veritable, facetious, nadir, quixotic, apropos, acquiesce, ostensible, insipid, egregious, inveterate, coax, adroit and 409 more...
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Need to Know!
elicit, educe, refute, cogency, churlish, martinet, veritable, polyglot, dissemble, histrionics, prevarication, verbiage and 166 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for cursory.
leaden Argh.
“But this original name is dying out because sod over here is a cursory so is not used much.”
Sometimes the Internet makes me sad. Jan 18, 2012