browse
Americanverb (used with object)
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browses,
present (3rd person singular)
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browsed,
past participle, past
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browsing
present participle
-
to eat, nibble at, or feed on (leaves, tender shoots, or other soft vegetation).
-
to graze; pasture on.
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to look through or glance at casually or randomly.
He's browsing the shelves for something to read.
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to access and view (website content) with a Web browser, usually without looking for something specific.
a secure way to browse the Web.
verb (used without object)
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browses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
browsed,
past participle, past
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browsing
present participle
-
to feed on or nibble at foliage, lichen, berries, etc.
-
to graze.
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to glance at random through a book, magazine, etc.
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to look leisurely at goods displayed for sale, as in a store.
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to access and view websites with a Web browser, as in
If you love to browse while on the road, you can easily take advantage of free Wi-Fi .
noun
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browses
plural
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tender shoots or twigs of shrubs and trees as food for cattle, deer, etc.
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an act or instance of browsing.
verb
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to look through (a book, articles for sale in a shop, etc) in a casual leisurely manner
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computing to search for and read hypertext, esp on the Internet
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(of deer, goats, etc) to feed upon (vegetation) by continual nibbling
noun
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the act or an instance of browsing
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the young twigs, shoots, leaves, etc, on which certain animals feed
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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browsesimple
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browsessimple
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have browsedperfect
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has browsedperfect
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am browsingprogressive
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are browsingprogressive
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is browsingprogressive
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have been browsingperfect progressive
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has been browsingperfect progressive
Past
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browsedsimple
-
had browsedperfect
-
was browsingprogressive
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were browsingprogressive
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had been browsingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of browse
1400–50; late Middle English browsen, perhaps a verbal derivative of Anglo-French broz, plural of brot shoot, new growth, Old French brost < Old Low Franconian *brust bud, noun derivative of *brustjan; compare Old Saxon brustian to come into bud
Explanation
To browse is to look casually for whatever catches your eye, rather than searching for something specific. Window shopping and scanning the newspaper for interesting headlines are forms of browsing. You can browse in a store, a library, or browse the Internet (with — what else? — an Internet "browser"). When it comes to reading material, browse means the same as peruse. Back in the 16th century, though, this verb was used in reference to animals feeding on, or grazing on, the buds of trees.
Vocabulary lists containing browse
Vocabulary Video Contest (2013) - List 1
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No Easy Answers: Our Digital World and "Gadgets and Games"
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From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Families can visit, browse and take away items they need completely free of charge, without having to formally apply.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
With more than 12 million people registering for 2028 Olympics tickets, even getting a chance to browse the ticket shelves was hard to come by.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
They are essential for anyone who wants to secure their data, stream content freely and browse the internet without worrying about being tracked.
From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026
Complex interfaces let users browse match offerings, make selections and proceed through checkout.
From Barron's ● Jun. 3, 2026
She went out of her way to avoid walking past bookstores that might tempt her to stop and browse.
From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling
“I love an expensive grocery store,” says Samantha Pearlstein, a 26-year-old sales engineer, as she browses $85 flower arrangements and $23 salads.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026
"I like to buy more expensive items that I'm going to wear over the years," she tells the BBC as she browses clothes in a Primark store with her mum.
From BBC ● Nov. 7, 2025
The justices pondered lots of possibilities: When a person thinks about taking a trip, or commits to doing it, or browses a hotel’s website, or takes out their credit card to book, for example.
From Slate ● Oct. 4, 2023
Emily Colucci, a freelance art writer, “constantly, mindlessly” browses the online job listings hosted by the nonprofit New York Foundation for the Arts — and last week she found a doozy.
From New York Times ● Feb. 26, 2023
Her bricky teeth flung far and wide, On virgin fields my London browses, The amaranthine plains are pied With nutty little bijou houses.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, June 10, 1914 by Sir Owen Seaman
Among them, the height to volume model was applied to heavily browsed willows with unusual growth forms, even though the model was not designed for such distorted shapes.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 14, 2026
In a Shanghai shopping centre, customers browsed racks of used winter coats, $2 trousers and household appliances -- pre-used items that would have been out of place in a major Chinese mall a decade ago.
From Barron's ● Mar. 4, 2026
Last spring, at an outdoor market in Chongqing, China, I browsed stalls heaped with dried red chiles and steaming sweet cakes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 4, 2026
For the Nigerian designer, most orders come through Instagram DMs, after potential clients have browsed photos of dresses tagging her brand and then get in touch.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2025
The concept of a World Wide Web—a system for creating, organizing, and linking documents so they could be easily browsed over the Internet—was developed by British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee.
From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman
She said wasps on the marshes would have to deal with roaming cattle and sheep, so she challenged her inner "ungulate" to stroll through the office like a "browsing cow".
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
It captured clicks, keystrokes and browsing activity of US employees to train AI agents -- software capable of independently performing tasks.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
Noah Neustadt, a Montreal-based user-experience designer for a U.S. software company, spends his spare time browsing farmland listings in British Columbia and Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026
CyberGhost’s global servers make streaming and browsing effortless, even for novice users.
From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026
Dad is off the phone, so I hand over his laptop before Camille can search the browsing history.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
