consult Meaning, Definition & Usage

verb get or ask advice from
confer with.
- Consult your local broker
- They had to consult before arriving at a decision
verb seek information from
refer; look up.
- You should consult the dictionary
- refer to your notes
verb have a conference in order to talk something over
confab; confer; confabulate.
- We conferred about a plan of action
verb advise professionally
- The professor consults for industry

L. consultare, fr. consulere to consult: cf. f. consulter. Cf. Counsel.

imperfect & past participle Consulted; present participle & verbal noun Consulting

To seek the opinion or advice of another; to take consel; to deliberate together; to confer.
Let us consult upon to-morrow's business. Shak.

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

To ask advice of; to seek the opinion of; to apply to for information or instruction; to refer to; as, to consult a physician; to consult a dictionary.
Men fergot, or feared, to consult . . . ; they were content to consult liberaries. Whewell.
To have reference to, in judging or acting; to have regard to; to consider; as, to consult one's wishes.
We are . . . to consult the necessities of life, rather than matters of ornament and delight. L'Estrange.
To deliberate upon; to take for. Obs.
Manythings were there consulted for the future, yet nothing was positively resolved. Clarendon.
To bring about by counsel or contrivance; to devise; to contrive. Obs.
Thou hast consulted shame to thy use by cutting off many people. Hab. ii. 10.

The act of consulting or deliberating; consultation; also, the result of consulation; determination; decision. Obs.
The council broke; And all grave consults dissolved in smoke. Dryden.
A council; a meeting for consultation. Obs. "A consult of coquettes." Swift.
Agreement; concert Obs. Dryden.