peruse

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“
Doubtless during the afternoon she had trimmed her intuitive Belial art of making 'the worse appear the better cause': queer to peruse, and instructive in an unprofitable department of knowledge-the tricks of the sex.

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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.

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

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Examples (44)

  • I now send a few more leaves of the Annals , which I hope you will peruse, and return with observations, as you did upon the former occasion. —  Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2
  • Take a moment to peruse the titles listed in the current charts and, from our publicly available database, the depth and richness of SPOnG's data is immediately evident; packaging and in-game screens, age ratings, release dates, genre classification, accessories and summary. —  SPOnG.com
  • Manalapan's Tony DeRose used his computer to pre-peruse Citi Field's food options. —  Latest News
  • Reports such as these verify something that I have been suspecting as a peruse this thread, particularly some of the exchanges with JasonC, namely that there are elements on the new-Left who have indeed publicized their desire for a bloody rout of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and in this case, to the cheers of a well-indoctrinated mob. —  NewsBusters.org - Exposing Liberal Media Bias
  • CES: Day 2 Wrap-Up - We still don't have a show floor proper to peruse, but the press day definitely gave the big names a chance to blast out their big announcements. —  Megite Technology News: What's Happening Right Now
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same contextWord Family

peruse:   perusing
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/
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