consult

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English

Etymology

From Middle French consulter, from Latin consultare (“to deliberate, consult”), frequentative of consulere (“to consult, deliberate, consider, reflect upon, ask advice”), from com- (“together”) + -sulere, of uncertain origin.

Pronunciation

Noun
  • enPR: kŏn'sŭlt or kənsŭlt'
  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 95: Parameter 1 should be a valid language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL. IPA(key): /ˈkɒnsʌlt/, /kənˈsʌlt/
  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 95: Parameter 1 should be a valid language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL. IPA(key): /ˈkɑnsʌlt/
  • Audio (US)(file)
Verb

Noun

consult (plural consults)

  1. (obsolete) The act of consulting or deliberating; consultation
  2. (obsolete) the result of consultation; determination; decision.
    • (Can we date this quote by John Dryden and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      The council broke; And all grave consults dissolved in smoke.
  3. (obsolete) A council; a meeting for consultation.
    • 1730, Jonathan Swift, Death and Daphne, Chapter 5
      a consult of coquettes
  4. (obsolete) Agreement; concert.
  5. (US) A visit, e.g. to a doctor; a consultation.

Usage notes

  • The noun consult is avoided in British English, where consultation is preferred. In American English, they are merely synonyms.

Synonyms

Verb

consult (third-person singular simple present consults, present participle consulting, simple past and past participle consulted)

  1. (intransitive) To seek the opinion or advice of another; to take counsel; to deliberate together; to confer.
    • (Can we date this quote by William Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      Let us consult upon to-morrow's business.
    • (Can we date this quote by Thomas Hobbes and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      All the laws of England have been made by the kings of England, consulting with the nobility and commons.
  2. (intransitive) To advise or offer expertise.
  3. (intransitive) To work as a consultant or contractor rather than as a full-time employee of a firm.
  4. (transitive) To ask advice of; to seek the opinion of (a person)
    • 1899, John Cotton Dana, chapter 1, in A Library Primer:
      If you have no library commission, consult a lawyer and get from him a careful statement of what can be done under present statutory regulations.
  5. (transitive) To refer to (something) for information.
    Coordinate term: look up
    • 1904, Guy Wetmore Carryl, chapter 3, in Far from the Maddening Girls:
      Which reminds me that I have never remembered from that hour to consult the dictionary upon a selvage.
    • (Can we date this quote by William Whewell and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      Men forgot, or feared, to consult nature, to seek for new truths, to do what the great discoverers of other times had done; they were content to consult libraries.
  6. (transitive) To have reference to, in judging or acting; to have regard to; to consider; as, to consult one's wishes.
    • (Can we date this quote by L'Estrange and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      We are […] to consult the necessities of life, rather than matters of ornament and delight.
  7. (transitive, obsolete) To deliberate upon; to take for.
    • (Can we date this quote by Edward Hyde Clarendon and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      Many things were there consulted for the future, yet nothing was positively resolved.
  8. (transitive, obsolete) To bring about by counsel or contrivance; to devise; to contrive.
    • Bible, Heb. ii. 10.
      Thou hast consulted shame to thy use by cutting off many people.

Translations

Related terms

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “consult”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Further reading

Anagrams

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