cursory

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: cur=so=ry

CIDE DICTIONARY

cursory, a. [L. cursorius, fr. cursor. See Cursor.].

•  Running about; not stationary.  [1913 Webster]
•  Characterized by haste; hastily or superficially performed; slight; superficial; careless.  [1913 Webster]

  "Events far too important to be treated in a cursory manner."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

cursory, adj. hasty, hurried (a cursory glance).

Derivative

cursorily adv. cursoriness n.

Etymology

L cursorius of a runner (as CURSOR)

THESAURUS

cursory

airy, ankle-deep, at odds, averse, brief, careless, casual, degage, depthless, desultory, differing, disagreeing, disinclined, disobedient, disregardant, disregardful, easygoing, epidermal, expeditious, fast, festinate, feverish, few, flippant, flying, footling, forced, forgetful, fractious, free and easy, furious, haphazard, hasty, heedless, hurried, immediate, inconsequential, inconsiderable, inconsiderate, indifferent, indisposed, indocile, insignificant, insouciant, instant, involuntary, jejune, knee-deep, last-minute, lazy, light, little, low, meager, miniature, mutinous, negligible, no great shakes, not deep, oblivious, offhand, on the spot, on the surface, opposed, passing, perfunctory, petty, picayune, picayunish, prompt, quick, random, rapid, recalcitrant, reckless, refractory, regardless, resistant, respectless, shallow, shallow-rooted, shoal, short, sketchy, skin-deep, slap-bang, slapdash, slight, small, snap, speedy, sulky, sullen, summary, superficial, surface, swift, tactless, thin, thoughtless, tiny, trifling, trivial, unconsenting, uncritical, undiplomatic, unheedful, unheeding, unmindful, unprepared, unprofound, unready, unsolicitous, untactful, unthinking, unwilling, urgent

ROGET THESAURUS

cursory

Haste

N haste, urgency, despatch, dispatch, acceleration, spurt, spirt, forced march, rush, dash, speed, velocity, precipitancy, precipitation, precipitousness, impetuosity, brusquerie, hurry, drive, scramble, bustle, fuss, fidget, flurry, flutter, splutter, hasty, hurried, brusque, scrambling, cursory, precipitate, headlong, furious, boisterous, impetuous, hotheaded, feverish, fussy, pushing, in haste, in a hurry, in hot haste, in all haste, breathless, pressed for time, hard pressed, urgent, with haste, with all haste, with breathless speed, in haste, apace, amain, all at once, at short notice, immediately, posthaste, by cable, by express, by telegraph, by forced marches, hastily, precipitately, helter-skelter, hurry-skurry, holus-bolus, slapdash, slap-bang, full-tilt, full drive, heels over head, head and shoulders, headlong, a corps perdu, by fits and starts, by spurts, hop skip and jump, sauve qui peut, every man for himself, devil take the hindmost, no time to be lost, no sooner said than done, a word and a blow, haste makes waste, maggiore fretta minore atto, ohne Hast aber ohne Rast stand not upon the order, swift, swift, you dragons of the night.

Transientness

N transience, transientness, evanescence, impermanence, fugacity, caducity, mortality, span, nine days' wonder, bubble, Mayfly, spurt, flash in the pan, temporary arrangement, interregnum, velocity, suddenness, changeableness, transient, transient boarder, transient guest, transient, transitory, transitive, passing, evanescent, fleeting, cursory, short-lived, ephemeral, flying, fugacious, fugitive, shifting, slippery, spasmodic, instantaneous, momentaneous, temporal, temporary, provisional, provisory, deciduous, perishable, mortal, precarious, unstable, insecure, impermanent, brief, quick, brisk, extemporaneous, summary, pressed for time, sudden, momentary, temporarily, pro tempore, for the moment, for a time, awhile, en passant, in transitu, in a short time, soon, briefly, at short notice, on the point of, on the eve of, in articulo, between cup and lip, one's days are numbered, the time is up, here today and gone tomorrow, non semper erit aestas, eheu! fugaces labuntur anni, sic transit gloria mundi, a schoolboy's tale, the wonder of the hour!, dum loquimur fugerit invidia aetas, fugit hora, all that is transitory is but an illusion.

Inattention

N inattention, inconsideration, inconsiderateness, oversight, inadvertence, inadvertency, nonobservance, disregard, supineness, etourderie, want of thought, heedlessness, insouciance, abstraction, absence of mind, absorption of mind, preoccupation, distraction, reverie, brown study, deep musing, fit of abstraction, inattentive, unobservant, unmindful, heedless, unthinking, unheeding, undiscerning, inadvertent, mindless, regardless, respectless, listless, blind, deaf, bird-witted, hand over head, cursory, percursory, giddy-brained, scatter-brained, hare-brained, unreflective, unreflecting, ecervele, offhand, dizzy, muzzy, brainsick, giddy, giddy as a goose, wild, harum-scarum, rantipole, highflying, heedless, careless, inconsiderate, thoughtless, absent, abstracted, distrait, absentminded, lost, lost in thought, wrapped in thought, rapt, in the clouds, bemused, dreaming on other things, musing on other things, preoccupied, engrossed, daydreaming, in a reverie, off one's guard, napping, dreamy, caught napping, disconcerted, distracted, put out, inattentively, inadvertently, absent-mindedly, per incuriam, sub silentio, Int, stand at ease, stand easy!, the attention wanders, one's wits gone a woolgathering, one's wits gone a bird's nesting, it never entered into one's head, the mind running on other things, one's thoughts being elsewhere, had it been a bear it would have bitten you.