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vocabulary
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cursory
in a sentence

show 118 more with this conextual meaning
  • A few hours later, the first of many passersby gave it a cursory glance as they went by the window.   (source)
  • My mother took one last cursory glance at her brood then led the way up the goat path; we called the path from our home to the bridge the goat path because when we ran to meet our father after his day's work he said we looked like goats, cabroncitos, or cabritos.   (source)
  • Sure enough, by the time I lifted my head a couple of minutes later to turn my attention to the teacher, a cursory check revealed everyone else was pretty much doing the same.   (source)
    cursory = hasty (quick) and without attention to detail
  • She gave a cursory nod to the group before her gaze fell on Max, sitting small and hunched at the table.   (source)
    cursory = hasty and without much attention
  • As they walked side by side, Peters and he, along the interminable corridors, through the cursory customs and immigration check,   (source)
    cursory = quick (without attention to detail)
  • After a cursory glance at the rest of the rooms, from basement to attic, we came to the conclusion that the dining room contained any effects which might belong to the Count.   (source)
  • But excepting two odd incidents, the circumstances of his stay until the extraordinary day of the club festival may be passed over very cursorily.   (source)
    cursorily = quickly (without attention to details)
  • I noticed these objects cursorily only — in them there was nothing extraordinary.   (source)
    cursorily = in a hasty manner
  • In fact, having once satisfied themselves that no egress could have been made in this quarter, they would naturally bestow here a very cursory examination.   (source)
    cursory = hasty and without attention to detail
  • Through this work I obtained a cursory knowledge of history and a view of the several empires at present existing in the world; it gave me an insight into the manners, governments, and religions of the different nations of the earth.   (source)
    cursory = quick (without a lot of detail)
  • "At least it's cold tonight," Claude said, taking a cursory whiff of his own.†   (source)
  • It just so happened, however, that a cursory examination of this Former Person's recent associates led to a certain willowy actress—who for years had been the reputed paramour of a round-faced Commisar recently appointed to the Politburo.†   (source)
  • In hindsight, the cursory treatment they gave each individual—each "audition" was no longer than a few-sentence conversation—suggests that the whole event was more scam than talent search.†   (source)
  • One or two of the doctors and nurses in white coats greet him cursorily as he walks through a large room toward a desk.†   (source)
  • I paid a gardener to come and keep the garden tidy, and I don't think I gave it anything but the most cursory of looks for the best part of a year.†   (source)
  • The long afternoons she spent browsing through dictionary and thesaurus made for constructions that were inept, but hauntingly so: the coins a villain concealed in his pocket were "esoteric," a hoodlum caught stealing a car wept in "shameless auto-exculpation," the heroine on her thoroughbred stallion made a "cursory" journey through the night, the king's furrowed brow was the "hieroglyph" of his displeasure.†   (source)
  • Hagrid stooped down, bestowed upon Harry a cursory and rib-cracking hug, then ran back to the shattered window.†   (source)
  • It was to him that Bronn turned with a cursory salute.†   (source)
  • It was tucked far enough behind the other chips that it was easy to miss with a cursory glance, but when Cinder targeted it with the flashlight, it gleamed like polished silver.†   (source)
  • After I take a shower, and Johanna sort of wipes herself down with a damp cloth, she makes a cursory inspection of the place.†   (source)
  • Her fingers, on his shoulder, had noticed that his T-shirt was damp, but they had not bothered reporting the information to her brain in more than a cursory way.†   (source)
  • Nine worlds out of eight thousand or more worlds explored-however cursorily-since the Hegira.†   (source)
  • He swiftly switched out the first slide for the second, and then glanced at it cursorily.†   (source)
  • Elise and Kriss each gave me a cursory nod as they attempted to focus on their tasks, and I stood to leave.†   (source)
  • This time the guard issued a cursory shake of the head before peering around Zeitoun to see Nasser, who again was sitting on the bed.†   (source)
  • He and Hiro glance cursorily at each other's armaments.†   (source)
  • I drink water directly from the tap, giving myself a cursory glance in the mirror.†   (source)
  • He hesitated, then gave the book another cursory once-over and brought out his purse.†   (source)
  • None of the guards gave Wells more than a cursory glance as he raised his eyes to the retina scanner, then strode through the doors.†   (source)
  • She watched Lump plod by the tree after only a cursory sniff.†   (source)
  • Martin Vanger was interviewed in a cursory fashion.†   (source)
  • I remember him standing that way during initiation, as he watched us fight each other, so tall and so strong I never dreamed he would give me more than a cursory glance.†   (source)
  • Finally, several months and many letters later, without any fanfare and with just a cursory notification to me, they dropped the entire matter.†   (source)
  • Then the werecat lifted his other paw and, after a cursory examination, began to lick it.†   (source)
  • They'd done a cursory search of their surroundings and didn't see anyone close, so they'd decided it was safe to test the new fancy weapon.†   (source)
  • In Pakistan, meetings with high officials, even cursory meetings, meant, at minimum, being escorted to a chair and offered tea.†   (source)
  • Marine correspondent Keyes Beech's cursory investigation had identified only one flagraiser on the boat: Rene Gagnon.†   (source)
  • The Winter King hefted the parcel in his hand and snorted, giving the order without even a cursory backward glance.†   (source)
  • Cedric waves and offers a cursory hello as he passes.†   (source)
  • As the waiter hands us our menus, I give a cursory flash down the list, but I already know what I want.†   (source)
  • Cursory greetings and introductions were made.†   (source)
  • I had learned the lingua franca that I thought would be most useful here, and done the sort of cursory research one needs to navigate unfamiliar places, but I knew almost nothing about the people who herded bov on this part of the planet.†   (source)
  • Without X rays or seeing how you move-symptomatically, as it were-I can only give you a cursory judgment.†   (source)
  • On the morning he found his way through the crooked streets of Boston to Jeremiah Gridley's office for the requisite interview for admission to the bar, Gridley, much to Adams's surprise, gave him not a few cursory minutes but several hours, questioning him closely on his reading.†   (source)
  • Sebastian was going through the stuff on the shelves, his long careful hands taking down object after object, subjecting them to a cursory inspection, and placing them back on the shelf.†   (source)
  • Also, Mr. Ferry's affidavit further states that he was not able to communicate with the blacks beyond a greeting and a few cursory words.†   (source)
  • His intent is just a cursory peek at the storied ironclad, with its massive round turret constituting the deck's superstructure.†   (source)
  • They asked where I was going and for how long, gave Rocinante a cursory inspection, and came at last to Charley.†   (source)
  • People did ask, cursorily, why the murderer had given himself up.†   (source)
  • Despite Teabing's insistence that their investigation should be conducted meticulously, Sophie felt eager and pushed ahead of them, making a cursory walk-through of the five knights on the left.   (source)
    cursory = quick (without attention to detail)
  • But I needn't have worried. Two Pakistani militia approached our dilapidated Land Cruiser, took a cursory glance inside, and waved us on.   (source)
    cursory = hasty and without attention to detail
  • He then took a cursory view of the present state of the science and explained many of its elementary terms.   (source)
    cursory = quick (without attention to detail)
  • 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.   (source)
    cursory = hasty (without attention to detail)
  • With a cursory glance at this square, however, his sixth sense was already tingling.†   (source)
  • He dropped a cursory glance to the gold box in his hands.†   (source)
  • A cursory probing by any lawyer would have revealed this.†   (source)
  • The physician gave me a cursory examination, and then one of the warders told me to get dressed.†   (source)
  • His first cursory glance had taken in the shelves with their stacks of folded sheets and pillowcases and washcloths and towels.†   (source)
  • After a cursory greeting and inquiry after the course and her health, he passed on information picked up from a colleague and confirmed by the family: Paul Marshall and Lola Quincey were to be married a week Saturday in the Church of the Holy Trinity, Clapham Common.†   (source)
  • Masha Heddle was fatter and greyer than Catelyn remembered, still chewing her sourleaf, but she gave them only the most cursory of looks, with nary a hint of her ghastly red smile.†   (source)
  • Yet he gave each one a cursory glance, afraid that by not being thorough he might miss exactly the piece of Overlookiana he needed to make the mystic connection that he was sure must be here somewhere.†   (source)
  • The pitchfork knight gave Clegane only the most cursory glance, and paid no attention at all to Arya, but he looked long and hard at Stranger.†   (source)
  • So if Mrs. Worried comes in with Pokie or Whiskers, we see the sticker, do a cursory exam, and tell them that we don't currently see anything wrong, but we'd like to see the dog or cat in a week just to make sure.†   (source)
  • The estate appraiser had apparently paid a cursory visit and noted that it was an old brickworks that had been more or less empty and abandoned since it was shut down in the sixties, apart from a period in the seventies when it had been used to store lumber.†   (source)
  • Xaro gave Selmy a cursory inspection.†   (source)
  • Though I had no idea what I should be looking for, I opened the envelope and gave the contents a cursory glance.†   (source)
  • In a warming hut an hour west of Banff, where they sat after Mortenson had been dragged by a team of huskies on a cursory loop through the woods by himself, Mortenson spent the better part of the following afternoon listening to the man's self-aggrandizing epic about how a plucky contractor, armed only with grit and determination, had conquered the Banff housing market.†   (source)
  • The words were grudging, the dip of the chin Mace Tyrell gave the Lord Regent the most cursory of bows.†   (source)
  • Finally, he set aside the pen and sat back in his chair, giving the freshly created map one last cursory glance and a nod of satisfaction.†   (source)
  • Then he sweeps through a cursory overview of guns found in lociiers and concealed knives as he studies Cedric's face, searching, it seems, for a clue about whether he's looking at a black college student who knows of such mayhem or someone, like almost everyone else, who's only heard about it.†   (source)
  • At all events, a very cursory survey of Shakespeare's work (similarly with Webster, though not with Marlowe or Jonson) suffices to reveal how this dominance, this initiative of women, persists from Rosalind to Lady Macbeth.†   (source)
  • The proprietor of the opium-den was also taken into custody, but a cursory raid of his premises yielded nothing.†   (source)
  • And he stood there almost in awe until the single cursory glance his father cast at him, pricked him into motion and he walked waveringly toward his mother.†   (source)
  • On a high stool at the bar there was seated a pretty young fellow without a mask and in evening dress who scrutinized me with a cursory and mocking glance.†   (source)
  • There were certain passages in the plays that she would compass some day, simply, easily, and with secret joy, because they alluded to the new rich wisdom of her heart; but her treatment of such passages became more and more cursory, not to say embarrassed.†   (source)
  • They glanced cursorily at the pictures, and proceeded to the band-stand.†   (source)
  • Olson walked through the bathroom and took a cursory glance at Alec's still form.†   (source)
  • Oh, I am only a layman—and I have only taken a very cursory glance at it.†   (source)
  • He cast a cursory glance round the passage, looking sternly at Alyosha and Kolya as he did so.†   (source)
  • Of the other two I will speak only cursorily.†   (source)
  • After a cursory inspection of the pillow-cases, leather pennants, and Gibson Girls that lined the walls, he left, and continued along Nassau Street with his hands in his pockets.†   (source)
  • She accepted these terms, and slid off on the near side, though not till he had stolen a cursory kiss.†   (source)
  • Anywhere else in Chicago he would have stood a good chance of being arrested; but the policemen in Packingtown were apparently used to these informal movings, and contented themselves with a cursory examination now and then.†   (source)
  • The week before, he had been so close to Madame Chauchat at the desk that she had bumped against him just the least bit and with a cursory turn of her head had said, "Pardon."†   (source)
  • THAT such a family, thus cursorily presented, might have a different and somewhat peculiar history could well be anticipated, and it would be true.†   (source)
  • The cursory remarks of the large-minded stranger, of whom he knew absolutely nothing beyond a commonplace name, were sublimed by his death, and influenced Clare more than all the reasoned ethics of the philosophers.†   (source)
  • The regular social gathering had been dull and cursory; the guests had departed early for their balconies and the late rest cure—those, that is, who did not follow unhealthy paths down into town, to dance and gamble.†   (source)
  • And the thorny crown of this sad conception was that she whom he really did prefer in a cursory way to the rest, she who knew herself to be more impassioned in nature, cleverer, more beautiful than they, was in the eyes of propriety far less worthy of him than the homelier ones whom he ignored.†   (source)
  • She cursorily signified the direction of the church, and went on, d'Urberville saying that he would see them again, in case they should be still unsuccessful in their search for shelter, of which he had just heard.†   (source)
  • Thinking begets thinking; as there were no sounds of Mrs. Corney's approach, it occured to Mr. Bumble that it would be an innocent and virtuous way of spending the time, if he were further to allay his curiousity by a cursory glance at the interior of Mrs. Corney's chest of drawers.†   (source)
  • The roof is about twelve feet high, and runs to a pretty sharp angle, as if there were a regular ridge-pole there; while these ribbed, arched, hairy sides, present us with those wondrous, half vertical, scimetar-shaped slats of whalebone, say three hundred on a side, which depending from the upper part of the head or crown bone, form those Venetian blinds which have elsewhere been cursorily mentioned.†   (source)
  • The Doctor, whose observation of the bee-hunter had hitherto been exceedingly cursory, stared at the new speaker with a look which denoted something like recognition.†   (source)
  • An extremely cursory glance at this record was sufficient to discover to the young hunter the domestic state of the divine.†   (source)
  • At each end, behind, and in the chimney-corner were grouped the guests, many of them being warm-faced and panting, among whom Eustacia cursorily recognized some well-to-do persons from beyond the heath.†   (source)
  • Nevertheless, we will remark cursorily, there is still an abyss between these races of men and the hideous assassin of the towns.†   (source)
  • But there was more in that tent than met the cursory glance; and the man, with the instinct of a perverse character, scented it quickly.†   (source)
  • Even idleness is eager now—eager for amusement; prone to excursion-trains, art museums, periodical literature, and exciting novels; prone even to scientific theorizing and cursory peeps through microscopes.†   (source)
  • I was unwilling to trust myself with a race of people who had offered, to the cursory glance I had taken, so many points of vague novelty, doubt, and apprehension.†   (source)
  • We will only add to this very cursory notice that M. de l'Aubepine's productions, if the reader chance to take them in precisely the proper point of view, may amuse a leisure hour as well as those of a brighter man; if otherwise, they can hardly fail to look excessively like nonsense.†   (source)
  • —Shakespeare While one of the lovely beings we have so cursorily presented to the reader was thus lost in thought, the other quickly recovered from the alarm which induced the exclamation, and, laughing at her own weakness, she inquired of the youth who rode by her side: "Are such specters frequent in the woods, Heyward, or is this sight an especial entertainment ordered on our behalf?†   (source)
  • Miuesov took a cursory glance at all these "conventional" surroundings and bent an intent look upon the elder.†   (source)
  • If she did not speak with Rebecca on the tender subject, she compensated herself with long and intimate conversations with Mrs. Blenkinsop, the housekeeper, who dropped some hints to the lady's-maid, who may have cursorily mentioned the matter to the cook, who carried the news, I have no doubt, to all the tradesmen, so that Mr. Jos's marriage was now talked of by a very considerable number of persons in the Russell Square world.†   (source)
  • At every vacant minute he hastened to gather furze-stumps, thorn-tree roots, and other solid materials from the adjacent slopes, hiding them from cursory view.†   (source)
  • His observation of Ellen was less marked, but notwithstanding the warlike and chastened expression of his eye, there was much of the homage, which man is made to pay to woman, even in the more cursory look he sometimes turned on her maturer and perhaps more animated beauty.†   (source)
  • Marmaduke had early forewarned his daughter of the season, and of its effect on the prospect; and after casting a cursory glance at its capabilities, the party returned homeward, perfectly satisfied that its beauties would repay them for the toil of a second ride at a more propitious season.†   (source)
  • But inexplicability did not rouse him to more than a cursory heed; his sense of degradation was too strong for the admission of foreign ideas; and he leant against the parapet as before.†   (source)
  • The glance he bestowed on the shield was more cursory and indifferent; but the exultation with which he threw himself on the back of his favoured war-horse was so great, as to break through the forms of Indian reserve.†   (source)
  • The distant light which Eustacia had cursorily observed in leaving the house came, as she had divined, from the cottage window of Susan Nunsuch.†   (source)
  • Standing in the middle of the arena at that time there by degrees became apparent its real vastness, which a cursory view from the summit at noon-day was apt to obscure.†   (source)
  • She looked cursorily at Henchard and the second magistrate, and Henchard looked at her, with a momentary pause, as if she had reminded him indistinctly of somebody or something which passed from his mind as quickly as it had come.†   (source)
  • …serenity, the finer movements of her nature found scope in discovering to the narrow-lived ones around her the secret (as she had once learnt it) of making limited opportunities endurable; which she deemed to consist in the cunning enlargement, by a species of microscopic treatment, of those minute forms of satisfaction that offer themselves to everybody not in positive pain; which, thus handled, have much of the same inspiring effect upon life as wider interests cursorily embraced.†   (source)
  • "Mild strain," I said, after a cursory inspection.†   (source)
  • I made a cursory examination of the outside of the circle, but if there had ever been a fire there, someone had taken pains to remove its traces.†   (source)
  • The hoi polloi of jarvies or stevedores or whatever they were after a cursory examination turned their eyes apparently dissatisfied, away though one redbearded bibulous individual portion of whose hair was greyish, a sailor probably, still stared for some appreciable time before transferring his rapt attention to the floor.†   (source)
  • /Curb/ has analogues in /curtain/, /curdle/, /curfew/, /curl/, /currant/, /curry/, /curve/, /curtsey/, /curse/, /currency/, /cursory/, /curtail/, /cur/, /curt/ and many other common words: /kerb/ has very few, and of them only /kerchief/ and /kernel/ are in general use.†   (source)
  • From the cursory view here taken, it must clearly appear to have been an arduous part.†   (source)
  • He held me in talk so long, till at last he drew me out of the raffling place to the shop-door, and then to a walk in the cloister, still talking of a thousand things cursorily without anything to the purpose.†   (source)
  • I shall confine myself to a cursory review of the remaining powers comprehended under this third description, to wit: to regulate commerce among the several States and the Indian tribes; to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin; to provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the current coin and secureties of the United States; to fix the standard of weights and measures; to establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws of bankruptcy, to prescribe…†   (source)
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