Perusal means the act of reading or examining something carefully and thoroughly. When you give a document your careful perusal, you're reading it with real attention to understand what it says, taking time to absorb the details rather than rushing through.

The word often appears in formal contexts. A lawyer might give a contract careful perusal before signing it, checking every clause and detail. A teacher might ask for time to peruse your essay before offering feedback. When you peruse a museum catalog or a rare book, you're taking your time to appreciate what you're reading.

Here's something interesting: people sometimes use peruse casually to mean “browse” or “glance through,” as in perusing a magazine in a waiting room. But traditionally, the word meant the opposite: reading carefully and completely. If you want to be precise, you can use peruse when you mean serious, attentive reading, and save words like “browse” or “skim” for quick looks.

The related word perusal is the noun form: “After careful perusal of the instructions, she understood how to build the model.” When something important needs reading, it may deserve your careful perusal.