adj ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Hasty or superficial.

   "cursory glance"

2. 2
   Careless or desultory.

   "The cursory inspection missed several irregularities."

3. 3
   Running about; not stationary. obsolete

Adjective

1. 1
   hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

perfunctoryafootairyanimateankle deepankle-deep

Antonyms

All antonyms

charydreichmeticulousstationary

Example

More examples

"A cursory examination of his teeth indicated that he had gingivitis."

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French cursoire (“rapid”), from Latin cursorius (“hasty, of a race or running”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.