Consult
noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A visit to consult somebody, such as a doctor; a consultation. US, countable
- 2 The act of consulting or deliberating; consultation. countable, obsolete, uncountable
"For firſt upon conſult of reaſon, there will bee found no eaſie aſſurance for to faſten a materiall or temperamentall propriety upon any nation; […]"
- 3 The result of consultation; determination; decision. countable, obsolete, uncountable
"[T]he council broke; / And all their grave conſults diſſolv'd in ſmoke."
- 4 A council; a meeting for consultation. countable, obsolete, uncountable
"a consult of coquettes"
- 5 Agreement; concert. countable, obsolete, uncountable
- 1 To seek the opinion or advice of another; to take counsel; to deliberate together; to confer; to advise. intransitive
"Let us consult upon to-morrow's business."
- 2 advise professionally wordnet
- 3 To advise or offer expertise. intransitive
"Well, I have a trade of my own. I suppose I am the only one in the world. I’m a consulting detective, if you can understand what that is."
- 4 have a conference in order to talk something over wordnet
- 5 To work as a consultant or contractor rather than as a full-time employee of a firm. intransitive
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- 6 seek information from wordnet
- 7 To ask advice of; to seek the opinion of (a person) transitive
"If you have no library commission, consult a lawyer and get from him a careful statement of what can be done under present statutory regulations."
- 8 get or ask advice from wordnet
- 9 To refer to (something) for information. transitive
"Which reminds me that I have never remembered from that hour to consult the dictionary upon a selvage."
- 10 To have reference to, in judging or acting; to have regard to; to consider; as, to consult one's wishes. transitive
"We are […] to consult the necessities of life, rather than matters of ornament and delight."
- 11 To deliberate upon; to take for. obsolete, transitive
"Many things were there consulted for the future, yet nothing was positively resolved."
- 12 To bring about by counsel or contrivance; to devise; to contrive. obsolete, transitive
"Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people."
Example
More examples"You'd better consult the doctor."
Etymology
From Middle French consulte. In sense “council”, it represents Latin cōnsultum, Italian consulto; and it may have been often taken as a direct formation from the verb.
From Middle French consulter, from Latin cōnsultō (“to deliberate, consult”), frequentative of cōnsulō (“to consult, deliberate, consider, reflect upon, ask advice”), from com- (“together”) + -sulō, from Proto-Indo-European *selh₁- (“to take, grab”).
Related phrases
More for "consult"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.