Definition of "peruse"

Sitting on a low stool, a few yards from her arm-chair, I examined her figure; I perused her features.

1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter IV, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], page 58

This survey may be made by perusing al Books and taking notice of all Mechanicall Inventions.

1647, William Petty, The Advice to Hartlib

We are for reasons that, after perusing this manuscript, you may be able to guess, going away again this time to Central Asia […]

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887

Not every German who bought a copy of Mein Kampf necessarily read it. […] But it might be argued that had more non-Nazi Germans read it before 1933 and had the foreign statesmen of the world perused it carefully while there still was time, both Germany and the world might have been saved from catastrophe.

1960, William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Simon & Schuster, page 81

Haynes quickly perused the message, then took it to the captain on the bridge.

2001, Doug Stanton, In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis‎, page 35

She asked Denise for the court file, which she fussed from her handbag. The woman perused it briefly and then beamed up at me.

2005, Al Lovejoy, Acid Alex‎, page 98

I loved to straggle off in the mornings […] , just perusing around for firewood.

1957, Robert Ruark, The Old Man And The Boy‎, page 55

A peruse of the website looked promising […]

2008 September 12, Dave Robson, “Hi-tea, low cost!”, in Evening Gazette