cursory

Borrowed from Middle French cursoire (“rapid”), from Latin cursorius (“hasty, of a race or running”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɜː.sə.ɹi/, /ˈkɜːs.ɹi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɝː.sə.ɹi/, /ˈkɝːs.ɹi/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈkɵː.sɘ.ɹi/, /ˈkɵːs.ɹi/
• Hyphenation: cur‧so‧ry, curs‧ory

cursory (comparative more cursory, superlative most cursory)

1. Hasty or superficial.

   cursory glance

   Most junk mail requires only a cursory glance.

   • 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 53:

     But the cursory glance my father had taken of my volume by no means assured me that he was acquainted with its contents, and I continued to read with the greatest avidity.

   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC:

     She accepted these terms, and slid off on the near side, though not till he had stolen a cursory kiss.

   • 1913 January–May, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Gods of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as The Gods of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., 1918 September, →OCLC:

     I may say that that single cursory examination of this awful travesty on Nature would have proved quite sufficient to my desires had I been a free agent.

2. Careless or desultory.

   The cursory inspection missed several irregularities.

3. (obsolete) Running about; not stationary.

• cursorily
• cursoriness

• cursor
• course

• perfunctory