Search in a way that could be a bit cursory? (5)
I believe the answer is:
scour
'search' is the definition.
(I know that scour is a more specific form of the action search)
'in a way that could be a bit cursory?' is the wordplay.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'a way' becomes 's' (Compass direction - South).
'that could' becomes 'our' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'be a bit' says to take the initial letters (I've seen 'a bit of' mean this).
The first letter of 'cursory' is 'c'.
's'+'our'='sour'
'sour' enclosing 'c' is 'SCOUR'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for scour that I've seen before include "flush out" , "Look high and low" , "Scrub clean" , "Thoroughly clean" , "Clean - scout" .)