To read or examine, typically with great care.
[Middle English perusen, to use up : Latin per-, per- + Middle English usen, to use; see use.]
perusable pe·rus'a·ble adj.perusal pe·rus'al n.
peruser pe·rus'er n.
USAGE NOTE Peruse has long meant "to read thoroughly" and is often used loosely when one could use the word read instead, as in The librarians checked to see which titles had been perused in the last month and which been left untouched. Seventy percent of the Usage Panel rejected this example in our 1999 survey. 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. In a 1988 survey, 66 percent of the Panel found it unacceptable, and in 1999, 58 percent still rejected it.
