peruse

verb

1. (transitive)To examine or consider with care.

   “Sitting on a low stool, a few yards from her arm-chair, I examined her figure; I perused her features.”

2. (transitive)To read completely.

   “This survey may be made by perusing al Books and taking notice of all Mechanicall Inventions.”

   “We are for reasons that, after perusing this manuscript, you may be able to guess, going away again this time to Central Asia […]”

   “Not every German who bought a copy of Mein Kampf necessarily read it. […]But it might be argued that had more non-Nazi Germans read it before 1933 and had the foreign statesmen of the world perused it carefully while there still was time, both Germany and the world might have been saved from catastrophe.”

3. (informal, transitive)To look over casually; to skim.

   “Haynes quickly perused the message, then took it to the captain on the bridge.”

   “She asked Denise for the court file, which she fussed from her handbag. The woman perused it briefly and then beamed up at me.”

4. (intransitive, regional)To go from place to place; to wander.

   “I loved to straggle off in the mornings […], just perusing around for firewood.”

noun

1. An examination or perusal; an instance of perusing.

   “A peruse of the website looked promising […]”