CURSORY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Cursory

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/kˈərsəri/ Listen

adjective

Cursory adj.

Running about; not stationary. (Obs.)

Characterized by haste; hastily or superficially performed; slight; superficial; careless. "Events far too important to be treated in a cursory manner."

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Etymology of 'Cursory'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Cursory" Quotes from Famous Books

... do very nicely," Miss Merivale said, after giving the typewritten programmes a cursory glance and pushing them from her. Her eyes went back to Rhoda's face. She saw now that the fleeting glimpse she had got of her on the staircase had somewhat deceived her. Rhoda was not as pretty as she had thought. Her mouth was a little too wide, and her nose had too blunt a tip for beauty. ...

— Miss Merivale's Mistake • Mrs. Henry Clarke

... of the States still permit county commissioners to commit the care of the poor to the lowest bidder. On the other hand the poorhouse has been transformed into a "Home for the Aged and Infirm" in some States, and inspections of public institutions by the grand jury are becoming more than merely cursory. State boards of charities are being established, and men have even attacked members of their own political parties on the charge of incompetence, cruelty, or neglect of duty as keepers of prisons or ...

— The New South - A Chronicle Of Social And Industrial Evolution • Holland Thompson

... GOLDEN DAYS has fallen into our hands. This is a paper for boys and girls, and, from the cursory examination we have been enabled to give it, we think ...

— Golden Days for Boys and Girls - Volume VIII, No 25: May 21, 1887 • Various

... residence; still, overflow with all the pompousness of national and individual vanity combined. "When I was on board the Audacious"—for a long time, was almost the invariable exordium to the fore-top Captain's most cursory remarks. It is often the custom of men-of-war's-men, when they deem anything to be going on wrong aboard ship to refer to last cruise when of course everything was done ship-shape and Bristol fashion. And by referring to the Audacious—an expressive name by the way—the fore-top Captain ...

— White Jacket - or, the World on a Man-of-War • Herman Melville

... whose knowledge of things theatrical is merely cursory, scant or non-existent, the two signs given above may have exactly the same meaning, bear the same message in both cases. But to all those "in the know" as to stage matters the two signs tell two entirely different stories, and the location of the names of the play and the actor convey important ...

— The Art of Stage Dancing - The Story of a Beautiful and Profitable Profession • Ned Wayburn

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