Consult, v. i. [imp. & p.p. Consulted; p.pr. & vb.n. Consulting.]
Etymology: [L. consultare, fr. consulere to consult: cf. f. consulter. Cf. Counsel.]
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.
2 other Webster entries under this spelling
Consult, v. t.
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. To deliberate upon; to take for. [Obs.] Manythings were there consulted for the future, yet nothing was positively resolved. Clarendon.
4. To bring about by counsel or contrivance; to devise; to contrive. [Obs.] Thou hast consulted shame to thy Hab. ii. 10.
Consult ( or ), n.
1. 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.
2. A council; a meeting for consultation. [Obs.] "A consult of coquettes." Swift.
3. Agreement; concert [Obs.] Dryden.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for consult; he lists it under deliberate.
Where he writes about it:
Consult and confer always imply two or more persons, as does debate, unless expressly limited as above. — from deliberate
Confer suggests the interchange of counsel, advice, or information; consult indicates almost exclusively the receiving of it. — from deliberate
Deliberate, which can be applied to a single individual, is also the word for a great number, while consult is ordinarily limited to a few; a committee consults; an assembly deliberates. — from deliberate