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Peruse vs Delve - What's the difference?

peruse | delve |

In lang=en terms the difference between peruse and delve

is that peruse is to read completely while delve is to dig the ground, especially with a shovel.

As nouns the difference between peruse and delve

is that peruse is an examination or perusal; an instance of perusing while delve is a pit or den.

As verbs the difference between peruse and delve

is that peruse is to examine or consider with care while delve is to dig the ground, especially with a shovel.

peruse

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • An examination or perusal; an instance of perusing.
  • * 2008 , Dave Robson, " Hi-tea, low cost!", Evening Gazette online, September 12,
  • A peruse of the website looked promising

    Verb

    (perus)
  • To examine or consider with care.
  • * {{quote-book, 1847,
  • , passage=Sitting on a low stool, a few yards from her arm-chair, I examined her figure; I perused her features.}}
  • To read completely.
  • * {{quote-book, 1887,
  • , passage=We are for reasons that, after perusing this manuscript, you may be able to guess, going away again this time to Central Asia
  • (informal) To look over casually; to skim.
  • * {{quote-book, 2001, Doug Stanton, In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis, page=35 citation
  • , passage=Haynes quickly perused the message, then took it to the captain on the bridge. }}
  • * {{quote-book, 2005, , Acid Alex, page=98 citation
  • , passage=She asked Denise for the court file, which she fussed from her handbag. The woman perused it briefly and then beamed up at me.}}
  • (regional) To go from place to place; to wander.
  • * {{quote-book, 1957, , The Old Man And The Boy, page=55 citation
  • , passage=I loved to straggle off in the mornings

    Usage notes

    * The sense of "skimming" is proscribed by some authorities on usage, including the Oxford American Dictionary''. The shift, however, is not dissimilar to that found in (scan). The ''Oxford English Dictionary further notes that the word was used as a general synonym for (read) as far back as the 16th century.

    Derived terms

    * perusable * perusal * peruser

    Anagrams

    * * ----

    delve

    English

    Verb

  • To dig the ground, especially with a shovel.
  • * 1381 , John Ball
  • When Adam dalf and Eve span, / Who was then a gentleman?
  • * Dryden
  • Delve of convenient depth your thrashing floor.
  • *
  • I got a spade from the tool-house, and began to delve with all my might - it scraped the coffin; I fell to work with my hands; the wood commenced cracking about the screws; I was on the point of attaining my object, when it seemed that I heard a sigh from some one above, close at the edge of the grave, and bending down.
  • (ambitransitive) To search thoroughly and carefully for information, research, dig into, penetrate, fathom, trace out
  • * 1609-11 , Shakespeare, Cymbeline, King of Britain
  • I cannot delve him to the root.
  • * 1943 , Emile C. Tepperman, Calling Justice, Inc.!
  • She was intensely eager to delve into the mystery of Mr. Joplin and his brief case.
  • (ambitransitive) To dig, to excavate.
  • * ca. 1260 , Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend
  • And then they made an oratory behind the altar, and would have dolven for to have laid the body in that oratory ...
  • * 1891 , , The White Company , chapter IV
  • Let him take off his plates and delve' himself, if ' delving must be done.

    Synonyms

    * (to dig the ground) dig * (to search thoroughly) investigate, research

    Derived terms

    * delver * indelve

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A pit or den.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.iii:
  • the wise Merlin whylome wont (they say) / To make his wonne, low vnderneath the ground, / In a deepe delue , farre from the vew of day [...].

    Anagrams

    * ----