Do You 'Pore Over' Something or 'Pour Over' It?

You won't find any fine print here.

Sit back. Grab your reading glasses. Sip a $7 cup of coffee and consider: to pore over or pore through something means to read and study it very carefully.

This evening, Democratic candidates in New York City’s mayoral race will convene virtually for the first of three official primary debates. For weeks, they have pored over policy briefings, huddled with advisers and held full-on mock sessions in preparation.
— Troy Closson, The New York Times, 13 May 2021

His daughter's fixation baffles him, the eight hours a day she spends poring through what must be the world's most dogeared dictionary.
— Rand Richards Cooper, Commonweal, 23 May 2003

After her first stressful encounter with Kao, Lois spent a week poring over his code book, vying to memorize the four-digit codes for the first probationary set of one hundred characters.
— Thomas S. Mullaney, Fast Company, 17 May 2021

Using 'Pore'

The verb pore can stand alone as a verb meaning "to gaze intently" or "to reflect or meditate steadily." The noun pore, meanwhile, refers to a tiny hole in the surface of an animal's skin or a plant.

Pore has two homophones in English, in poor and pour. Poor describes someone who has little money or few possessions or is worthy of pity:

They were too poor to afford a car.

After missing the bus, the poor kid had to walk home in the rain.

Using 'Pour'

Pour is a verb with meanings that pertain to allowing liquid to fall or stream (as from a pitcher) or something moving in a large quantity like a liquid:

She poured milk into her cereal bowl.

It was pouring [=raining very hard] outside.

Letters poured in from readers in response to the article.

The most common mistake that occurs among these words is when pour over is used in place of pore over when describing the act of reading or studying material. One possible explanation for the confusion is that the writer, not unreasonably, might think of the eye casting down on the page onto the subject being studied.

Pour over is used only when a liquid is being made to flow over the top of something else. Pour-over coffee is a manner of brewing that involves pouring a stream of hot water through coffee grounds and a filter. You might drink pour-over coffee at a café while poring over some pages at your table, but you absolute don't want to pour over them, lest they get ruined.