> > > 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.

For myself, I use the Reader's Digest Oxford Complete Wordfinder, which is a special edition of The Concise Oxford Dictionary with additional material from The Oxford Thesaurus, The Oxford Companion to the English Language, and other sources.

1. read or study, esp. thoroughly or carefully
2. examine carefully


Paul