peruse

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Definitions (6)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. transitive verb To read or examine, typically with great care.
  2. usage note
    Peruse has long meant "to read thoroughly” and is often used loosely when one could use the word read instead, as in The librarians checked to see which titles had been perused in the last month and which been left untouched. Seventy percent of the Usage Panel rejected this example in our 1999 survey. Sometimes people use it to mean "to glance over, skim,” as in I only had a moment to peruse the manual quickly, but this usage is widely considered an error. In a 1988 survey, 66 percent of the Panel found it unacceptable, and in 1999, 58 percent still rejected it.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples

  • Annals, which I hope you will peruse, and return with observations, as you did upon the former occasion. —  Life Of Johnson
  • Don Francisco, who had sent for him to consult him in this troublesome business, gave him the general of Achen's letter to peruse, and demanded his advice what was to be done on this occasion. —  The Works of John Dryden
  • Before he went to church they offered him his part to peruse, but he did not even look at it. —  The Confessions of J J Rousseau
  • 'These papers you will please to peruse, and give your opinion, Whether there is a probability of the above decree of the Court of Session's being reversed, if Mr. Thomson should appeal from the same?' —  Life of Johnson
  • He had to locate the Disciple before he could strike. —  The Fire In His Hands
 

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Peruse has been looked up 419 times, favorited 0 times, listed 39 times, and commented on 4 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English perusen, to use up : Latin per-, per- + Middle English usen, to use; see use.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from late Middle English perusen, from Latin per, through, + English use; translated by New Latin peruti, in Levins (1570). The formation looks unusual, but it is well supported by similar formations now obsolete, e. g. peract, perplant, perstand, etc. The sense is exactly that of pervise, ‘look through,’ and it has been supposed to be a reduction of that form; but such reduction is impossible, and pervise has been found only in one doubtful instance, seventy years later than the first instance of peruse.
 

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/pəˈruz/
by American Heritage

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