consults

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of consult.

   The committee consults outside experts before making major decisions.

   Whenever a tricky case arises, the lawyer consults a senior partner.

   Note

   The -s form carries the verb's full range, and what follows it decides the meaning. With a person (consults a senior partner) it means asking for advice. With a thing (consults a map) it means looking something up. In consults one's wishes it means taking them into account. With no object at all, she consults can mean she works as a consultant rather than as a full-time employee.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of consult.

   The hospitalist completed five consults across two wards before noon.

   Most of her consults that week involved post-operative patients.

   Note

   A plural that belongs to the living, countable noun. In US usage a consult is a visit to seek someone's advice, typically a doctor's, so a clinician can tally consults across a morning. The noun's other meanings, such as a council, a decision, or plain agreement, are obsolete and now turn up only in older writing. The same spelling serves the present-tense verb, and only the sentence tells them apart.

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