consult

From Middle French consulte. In sense “council”, it represents Latin cōnsultum, Italian consulto; and it may have been often taken as a direct formation from the verb.^[1][2]

• enPR: kŏn'sŭlt or kənsŭlt'
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒnsʌlt/, /kənˈsʌlt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑnsʌlt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌlt

consult (countable and uncountable, plural consults)

1. (now US, countable) A visit to consult somebody, such as a doctor; a consultation.

   Synonym: consultation

2. (obsolete) The act of consulting or deliberating; consultation.
   • 1646, Thomas Browne, “Of the Iewes”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], London: […] T[homas] H[arper] for Edward Dod, […], →OCLC, 4th book, page 201:

     For firſt upon conſult of reaſon, there will bee found no eaſie aſſurance for to faſten a materiall or temperamentall propriety upon any nation; […]

3. (obsolete) The result of consultation; determination; decision.
   • a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “The First Book of Homer’s Ilias”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume IV, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760, →OCLC, page 431:

     [T]he council broke; / And all their grave conſults diſſolv'd in ſmoke.

4. (obsolete) A council; a meeting for consultation.
   • 1730, Jonathan Swift, chapter 5, in Death and Daphne:

     a consult of coquettes

5. (obsolete) Agreement; concert.

• (visit to consult somebody): The noun consult is avoided in British English, where consultation is preferred. In American English, they are merely synonyms.

From Middle French consulter, from Latin cōnsultō (“to deliberate, consult”), frequentative of cōnsulō (“to consult, deliberate, consider, reflect upon, ask advice”), from com- (“together”) + -sulō, from Proto-Indo-European *selh₁- (“to take, grab”).

• enPR: kənsŭlt', IPA^(key): /kənˈsʌlt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌlt

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; to advise.
   • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

     Let us consult upon to-morrow's business.

   • 1661 (written), published in 1681, Thomas Hobbes, A Dialogue between a Philosopher and a Student of the Common Laws of England

     All the laws of England have been made by the kings of England, consulting with the nobility and commons.

   • 1889 January 11 [1888 December 21], Kung Taotai, “North Honan Road.”, in M. F. A. Fraser, transl., North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette‎^[1], volume XLII, number 1119, Shanghai, →OCLC, page 37, column 1:

     SIR,—I have the honour to refer to your letter requesting me to desire Mr. Y. Ching-chong to come and consult with the Municipal Council, as Mr. Wood, the Chairman of that Body had informed you at a personal interview that they fully concurred in the desirability of co-operation with Mr. Ching-chong in improvements in the Honan road draining and lighting.

2. (intransitive) To advise or offer expertise.
   • 1887, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “A Study in Scarlet”, in Beeton’s Christmas Annual, London, New York, N.Y., Melbourne, Vic.: Ward, Lock & Co., part I (Being a reprint from the reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., […]), chapter II (The Science of Deduction), page 13:

     Well, I have a trade of my own. I suppose I am the only one in the world. I’m a consulting detective, if you can understand what that is.

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.

   • 1837, William Whewell, History of the Inductive Sciences:

     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.
   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:

     We are […] to consult the necessities of life, rather than matters of ornament and delight.

7. (transitive, obsolete) To deliberate upon; to take for.
   • 1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, “(please specify |book=I to XVI)”, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the Theater, published 1707, →OCLC:

     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.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Habakkuk 2:10:

     Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people.

• consultant
• consultation

• “consult”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “consult”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

• Cultons

Borrowed from Latin consultum.

consult n (plural consulturi)

1. consultation