Meaning & use

peruse

verb·Advanced

To read something thoroughly and carefully, or, informally, to look through it casually.

See it in a sentence

She perused the entire contract carefully before signing anything at all.

He liked to peruse the secondhand bookshop whenever he had a free afternoon.

A note on using this word

Traditionally "peruse" means to read carefully, but it is now also used to mean browsing casually.

Words with a similar meaning

scrutinizestudybrowse

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

skim

Make it your own

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