> > However when I look it up in my Collin's Dictionary, there are two apparently contrary definitions.
> >
> > 1. To read or examine with care.
> > 2. To browse or read in a leisurely way (!)
>
> Bad dictionary! Bad! Bad! Bad! (Get the feeling I'm adamant about word definitions?)
>
> Webster's New World:
>
> 1. To read carefully; study
> 2. To read
>
> American Heritage:
>
> 1. To read or examine, especially with great care.
>
> Time to replace Collin's with one that doesn't adopt notorious verbal blunders as legitimate definitions. :-)

Ouch. Personally, I despise any of the "new" versions of Webster's. Over the years that I've had a few collegiate versions, I found them maddeningly imprecise... Meaning: I'd look a word up and go Hey! That word doesn't mean THAT! Must be the shoddy colloquial American influence! :-)

Sorry. I always keep on hand my Collins (London & Glasgow) Concise Plus, my Collins Thesaurus A-to-Z, my "Petit Robert et Collins" French-English dictionary, all for when I'm at home. At work I use the huge Webster's International Encyclopedic Dictionary and LIKE it. Someday I might even swing for a Bantam-Dell paperback dictionary... you never know.

Wolfspirit