Peruse
noun, verb, slang ·2 syllables ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 An examination or perusal; an instance of perusing.
"A peruse of the website looked promising […]"
- 1 To examine or consider with care. transitive
"Sitting on a low stool, a few yards from her arm-chair, I examined her figure; I perused her features."
- 2 examine or consider with attention and in detail wordnet
- 3 To read completely. transitive
"This survey may be made by perusing al Books and taking notice of all Mechanicall Inventions."
- 4 To look over casually; to skim. informal, transitive
"Haynes quickly perused the message, then took it to the captain on the bridge."
- 5 To go from place to place; to wander. intransitive, regional
"I loved to straggle off in the mornings […], just perusing around for firewood."
Example
More examples"The reader will doubtless take up this little work with an incredulous smile, supposing that he is about to peruse the impracticable schemes of some good citizen of Utopia. I would, therefore, in the first place, beg of him to lay aside all prejudice, and treat seriously and critically the question brought before him."
Etymology
From either Medieval Latin perūtor, perūsitō (“wear out”)) or Anglo-Norman peruser (“use up”)), originally leading to two concurrent meanings, but only those derived from "to examine" survive today. By surface analysis, per- + use.
Related phrases
More for "peruse"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.