peruse. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

peruse

SYLLABICATION:	pe·ruse
PRONUNCIATION:	p-rz
TRANSITIVE VERB:	Inflected forms: pe·rused, pe·rus·ing, pe·rus·es To read or examine, typically with great care.
ETYMOLOGY:	Middle English perusen, to use up : Latin per-, per- + Middle English usen, to use; see use.
OTHER FORMS:	pe·rusa·ble —ADJECTIVE pe·rusal —NOUN pe·ruser —NOUN
USAGE NOTE:	Peruse has long meant “to read thoroughly” and is often used loosely when one could use the word read instead. Sometimes people use it to mean “to glance over, skim,” as in I only had a moment to peruse the manual quickly, but this usage is widely considered an error. Sixty-six percent of the Usage Panel finds it unacceptable.


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.