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browse

[brouz]
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verb (used with object), browsed, brows·ing.
  1. to eat, nibble at, or feed on (leaves, tender shoots, or other soft vegetation).
  2. to graze; pasture on.
  3. to look through or glance at casually or randomly: He's browsing the shelves for something to read.
  4. to access and view (website content) with a Web browser, usually without looking for something specific: a secure way to browse the Web.
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verb (used without object), browsed, brows·ing.
  1. to feed on or nibble at foliage, lichen, berries, etc.
  2. to graze.
  3. to glance at random through a book, magazine, etc.
  4. to look leisurely at goods displayed for sale, as in a store.
  5. to access and view websites with a Web browser, as in mobile browsing; online browsing: If you love to browse while on the road, you can easily take advantage of free Wi-Fi .
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noun
  1. tender shoots or twigs of shrubs and trees as food for cattle, deer, etc.
  2. an act or instance of browsing.
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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
Related formsbrows·er, nounnon·brows·ing, adjective, nouno·ver·browse, verb (used with object), o·ver·browsed, o·ver·brows·ing.un·brows·ing, adjective
Can be confusedbrows browse

Synonyms

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3. scan, skim, examine, peruse, check.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

scan, read, peruse, skim, feed, survey, graze, nibble

Examples from the Web for browse

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • My pony had nothing but browse for supper, and he was restless.

  • They browse over the earth, but can sit up and eat like the squirrel.

    Little Men

    Louisa May Alcott

  • Sheep like to roam over the hills, and browse on the bushes and moss.

    Minnie's Pet Lamb

    Madeline Leslie

  • When cattle are turned in, they browse the tender terminal growth.

    The Apple-Tree

    L. H. Bailey

  • The man left the horse unchecked to browse by the roadside, and came to the door.

    Eli

    Heman White Chaplin

British Dictionary definitions for browse

browse

verb
  1. to look through (a book, articles for sale in a shop, etc) in a casual leisurely manner
  2. computing to search for and read hypertext, esp on the Internet
  3. (of deer, goats, etc) to feed upon (vegetation) by continual nibbling
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noun
  1. the act or an instance of browsing
  2. the young twigs, shoots, leaves, etc, on which certain animals feed
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Word Origin

C15: from French broust, brost (modern French brout) bud, of Germanic origin; compare Old Saxon brustian to bud
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for browse

v.

mid-15c., "feed on buds," from Middle French brouster, from Old French broster "to sprout, bud," from brost "young shoot, twig," probably from Proto-Germanic *brustjan "to bud," from PIE *bhreus- "to swell, sprout" (see breast (n.)). Lost its final -t in English on the mistaken notion that the letter was a past participle inflection. Figurative extension to "peruse" (books) is 1870s, American English. Related: Browsed; browsing.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper