cursory

[ kur-suh-ree ]

adjective

1. going rapidly over something, without noticing details; hasty; superficial:

   a cursory glance at a newspaper article.

   Synonyms: haphazard, passing, brief, quick

cursory

/ ˈkɜːsərɪ /

adjective

1. hasty and usually superficial; quick

   a cursory check

Derived Forms

• ˈcursoriness, noun
• ˈcursorily, adverb

Other Words From

• curso·ri·ly adverb
• curso·ri·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of cursory¹

1595–1605; < Late Latin cursōrius running, equivalent to Latin cur ( rere ) to run + -sōrius, for -tōrius -tory ¹; course

Word History and Origins

Origin of cursory¹

C17: from Late Latin cursōrius of running, from Latin cursus a course, from currere to run

Example Sentences

Taking to the Internet for a cursory search of this world reveals hundreds of videos of home-based animal breeding systems.

From The Daily Beast

After a cursory read-through, Walsh offered him a part in The Big Trail.

From The Daily Beast

A cursory inspection of available podcasts was unable to reveal the reason for the difficulty with iTunes.

From The Daily Beast

At the time, many in the audience only had a cursory knowledge of comic books.

From The Daily Beast

Unless some kind of sky-high musical chairs ensues, anything more than a cursory pre-potty hello could become a little tricky.

From The Daily Beast

We had not time enough to walk over the gardens; but, from a cursory view of them, did not much regret our loss.

From Project Gutenberg

The natural history of these provinces would be an inexhaustible subject: the cursory traveller can only describe generally.

From Project Gutenberg

Lyons appeared to me, from the cursory information which I could obtain, to be as cheap as any town in France.

From Project Gutenberg

The most cursory study of history would reveal the falseness of this contention.

From Project Gutenberg

In order to introduce this story, it will be requisite to take a cursory view of some previous occurrences.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• desultory
• offhand
• perfunctory
• random
• sketchy
• superficial