cursory
adjUK /ˈkɜː.sə.ɹi/ · US /ˈkɝː.sə.ɹi/
Etymology Borrowed from Middle French cursoire (“rapid”), from Latin cursorius (“hasty, of a race or running”).
1
Hasty or superficial.
- cursory glance
- A cursory view of the report revealed his egregious errors.
4 more examples
- Most junk mail requires only a cursory glance.
- 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.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:
- She accepted these terms, and slid off on the near side, though not till he had stolen a cursory kiss.1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →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.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., September 1918, →OCLC:
2
Careless or desultory.
- The cursory inspection missed several irregularities.
3
Obsolete Running about; not stationary.
- Derived terms
- cursorily, cursoriness
- Related terms
- cursor, course, perfunctory