Library / English Dictionary

PERUSE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Examine or consider with attention and in detail

Example:

Please peruse this report at your leisure

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "peruse" is one way to...):

examine; see (observe, check out, and look over carefully or inspect)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "peruse"):

flick; flip; leaf; riff; riffle; thumb (look through a book or other written material)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

perusal; perusing (reading carefully with intent to remember)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I closed the book, which I dared no longer peruse, and put it on the table, beside the untasted tart.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But having in my life perused many state-trials, which I ever observed to terminate as the judges thought fit to direct, I durst not rely on so dangerous a decision, in so critical a juncture, and against such powerful enemies.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Years have elapsed, since I had an opportunity of ocularly perusing the lineaments, now familiar to the imaginations of a considerable portion of the civilized world.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

This book I had again and again perused with delight.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I have perused several books of travels with great delight in my younger days; but having since gone over most parts of the globe, and been able to contradict many fabulous accounts from my own observation, it has given me a great disgust against this part of reading, and some indignation to see the credulity of mankind so impudently abused.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I devoured the books they lent me: then it was full satisfaction to discuss with them in the evening what I had perused during the day.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Mr. St. John—sitting as still as one of the dusty pictures on the walls, keeping his eyes fixed on the page he perused, and his lips mutely sealed—was easy enough to examine.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

And while she broke the seal and perused the document, I went on taking my coffee (we were at breakfast): it was hot, and I attributed to that circumstance a fiery glow which suddenly rose to my face.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)