Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
From: JSwing@nospam.wport.com (JSwing)
Subject: Re: movement restrictions
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In article <3a567490$1$zeoyber$mr2ice@news.cis.dfn.de>, mrblore@earthlink.net (Steven Howard) wrote:

>>peruse 1a : to examine or consider with attention and in detail 2:
>>Read; especially: to read over in an attentive or leisurely manner
>>(yep, it means the _opposite_ of what most people think it means,
>>though Merriam-Webster now also accepts the usual meaning 1b : to
>>look over or through in a casual or cursory manner) --
>

I don't think that it's exactly the opposite- typically you peruse a
collection of something.  If I peruse a set of books on the shelf, it means
that I'm paying attention to the titles.  More detailed than 'look at'.  1a
and 1b are not that far apart in my understanding.

If I peruse a book, then I'm reading selected pages or paragraphs, just not
the whole thing (so I'm actually perusing the pages).

That said, peruse is not that common of a word, so it might not make a good
verb.
