WORD OF THE DAY
peruse / verb / puh-ROOZ
Definition
1a: to examine or consider with attention and in detail
1b: study
1c: to look over or through in a casual or cursory manner
2a: read
2b: to read over in an attentive or leisurely manner
Examples
Dmitri perused the menu while we waited for a table.
"Your best friend here is eBird.org, a crowd-sourced website managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where birders file checklists and where you can peruse a map of hot spots (ebird.org/hotspots) to find out what's been seen near you in recent days."
— Ty Burr, The Boston Globe, 1 Apr. 2021
Did You Know?
Peruse has long been a literary word, used by such famous authors as William Shakespeare, Alfred Tennyson, and Thomas Hardy, and it tends to have a literary flavor even in our time.
Peruse can suggest paying close attention to something, but it can also simply mean "to read."
The "read" sense, which is not especially new and was in fact included in Samuel Johnson's 1755 dictionary, has drawn some criticism over the years for being too broad.
Some commentators have recommended that peruse be reserved for reading with great care and attention to detail.
But the fact remains that peruse is often used in situations where a simple "read" definition could be easily substituted. It may suggest either an attentive read or a quick scan.
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