consult

Formsconsults, consulting, consulted

Pluralconsults

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To ask a person for advice or to seek their opinion on a matter.

   Before changing the dosage, patients should consult their doctor.

   The committee consulted several experts before reaching a verdict.

   Similarask, approach

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To refer to a book, document, or other source in order to find information.

   Researchers consult primary sources to verify historical claims.

   He consulted the timetable before leaving for the station.

   Similarcheck, examine

   Note

   The object here is a thing rather than a person: a dictionary, a timetable, a library. William Whewell's History of the Inductive Sciences (1837) builds an argument on the sense, complaining that men were content to consult libraries when they should consult nature. That treats the world itself as a work of reference. Unlike asking a person's advice, nothing answers back; the one consulting does all the looking.

3. 3
   verbintransitive

   To take counsel with others, deliberating together to reach a shared view.

   The partners consulted at length before issuing a joint statement.

   Department heads consult regularly to keep their work aligned.

   Similarconfer, deliberate, talk

   Note

   Here the Latin shows through. The verb comes via Middle French consulter from Latin cōnsultō, a frequentative of cōnsulō, built on com-, "together". Used without an object, it takes with for the people (Hobbes's kings "consulting with the nobility and commons") and upon for the matter, as in Shakespeare's "Let us consult upon to-morrow's business." Compare asking a person's advice, which takes the person directly.

4. 4
   verbintransitive

   To provide expert advice or specialized knowledge to others.

   He now consults for tech startups on data security.

   Many retired engineers consult rather than leave the field entirely.

   Similaradvise

   Note

   Here the verb turns around, and the expert is now the one who consults. It takes no object: one consults for a client or on a project, while the asking sense takes the person whose advice is sought. The present participle also works as an adjective for someone who advises professionally. Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet (1887) has a character call himself a consulting detective, a trade he believes is his alone.

5. 5
   verbintransitive

   To work as a consultant or contractor rather than as a firm's full-time employee.

   After leaving the agency, she chose to consult independently.

   Many programmers consult so they can set their own schedules.

   Similarfreelance, contract

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To have regard to something when judging or acting; to take it into account.

   Wise planners consult the long-term costs, not just immediate gains.

   She consulted her conscience before signing the agreement.

   Similarconsider, weigh, heed, regard

   Oppositeignore, disregard

   Note

   No one is asked anything here. The object is an interest or need that guides a choice, as in consulting one's wishes or, in Roger L'Estrange (1692), "the necessities of life, rather than matters of ornament and delight." The safest modern frames are consult someone's wishes or convenience. Elsewhere, take into account or consider usually sound less stiff.

7. 7
   nounUScountable

   A visit made to get advice from a professional, especially a doctor; a consultation.

   The surgeon ordered a consult with the oncology team.

   He waited a week for a consult with the specialist.

   Similarconsultation

   Note

   The one noun sense still in everyday use, and today chiefly an American one. A consult is something you order, book or wait for, most often in medicine, where a specialist or a whole team is called in. It is countable: a consult, two consults. The noun reached English from Middle French consulte, a borrowing separate from the verb's consulter.

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