different between gape vs peruse

English

Etymology

Middle English gapen, from Old Norse gapa (“to gape”) (compare Swedish gapa, Danish gabe), from Proto-Germanic *gap?n? (descendants Middle English geapen, Dutch gapen, German gaffen), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *???h?b-. Cognates include Russian ???? (zjapa).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??e?p/
• Rhymes: -e?p

Verb

gape (third-person singular simple present gapes, present participle gaping, simple past and past participle gaped)

1. (intransitive) To open the mouth wide, especially involuntarily, as in a yawn, anger, or surprise.
   • 1723, Jonathan Swift, The Journal of a Modern Lady, 1810, Samuel Johnson, The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper, Volume 11, page 467,

     She stretches, gapes, unglues her eyes, / And asks if it be time to rise;
2. (intransitive) To stare in wonder.
3. (intransitive) To open wide; to display a gap.
   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Third Part of King Henry VI, Act 1, Scene 1, 1807, Samuel Johnson, George Steevens (editors),The plays of William Shakspeare, Volume X, page 291,

     May that ground gape, and swallow me alive, / Where I shall kneel to him who slew my father!

   • 1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 74:

     "Nor is he deterr'd from the belief of the perpetual flying of the Manucodiata, by the gaping of the feathers of her wings, (which seem thereby less fit to sustain her body) but further makes the narration probable by what he has observed in Kites hovering in the Aire, as he saith, for a whole hour together without any flapping of their wings or changing place."

   • a. 1699, John Denham, Cato Major, Of Old Age: A Poem, 1710, page 25,

     The hungry grave for her due tribute gapes:

4. (intransitive, of a cat) To open the passage to the vomeronasal organ, analogous to the flehming in other animals.
5. (pornography) To depict a dilated anal or vaginal cavity upon penetrative sexual activity.

Translations

Noun

gape (countable and uncountable, plural gapes)

1. (uncommon) An act of gaping; a yawn.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Addison to this entry?)

2. A large opening.
3. (uncountable) A disease in poultry caused by gapeworm in the windpipe, a symptom of which is frequent gaping.
4. The width of an opening.
5. (zoology) The maximum opening of the mouth (of a bird, fish, etc.) when it is open.

Derived terms

• agape

Translations

Anagrams

• PAGE, Page, page, peag

Dutch

Verb

gape

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of gapen

Anagrams

• page

Northern Sotho

Adverb

gape

1. again

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse gapa

Verb

gape (imperative gap, present tense gaper, passive gapes, simple past gapa or gapte, past participle gapa or gapt, present participle gapende)

1. to gape (of a mouth, hole, wound etc., be wide open)

   gap opp! - open wide! (e.g. at the dentist)

References

• “gape” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Alternative forms

• gapa

Etymology

From Old Norse gapa

Verb

gape (present tense gapar or gaper, past tense gapa or gapte, past participle gapa or gapt, passive infinitive gapast, present participle gapande, imperative gap)

1. to gape (of a mouth, hole, wound etc., be wide open)

References

• “gape” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

English

Etymology

From per- +? use, from either Medieval Latin (peruti, perusitare (“wear out”)) or Anglo-Norman (peruser (“use up”)), originally leading to two concurrent meanings, but only those derived from "to examine" survive today.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /p???u?z/
• Rhymes: -u?z

Verb

peruse (third-person singular simple present peruses, present participle perusing, simple past and past participle perused)

1. (transitive) To examine or consider with care.
2. (transitive) To read completely.
3. (transitive, informal) To look over casually; to skim.
4. (intransitive, regional) To go from place to place; to wander.

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, and thus, interestingly, peruse and scan are a synonym pair in which each is a contranym meaning either "to read carefully" or "to read hastily". To avoid ambiguity—and reader annoyance—careful writers may prefer skim when skimming is meant or scrutinize when care is meant. The Oxford English Dictionary further notes that the word peruse was used as a general synonym for read as far back as the 16th century.

Derived terms

• perusable
• perusal
• peruser

Translations

Noun

peruse (plural peruses)

1. 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 […]

Translations

Anagrams

• persue, purees, purées, rupees

Latin

Participle

peruse

1. vocative masculine singular of perusus