browse

[ brouz ]

/ braʊz /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR browse ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with object), browsed, brows·ing.

to eat, nibble at, or feed on (leaves, tender shoots, or other soft vegetation).

to graze; pasture on.

to look through or glance at casually or randomly: He's browsing the shelves for something to read.

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), browsed, brows·ing.

to feed on or nibble at foliage, lichen, berries, etc.

to graze.

to glance at random through a book, magazine, etc.

to look leisurely at goods displayed for sale, as in a store.

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 .

noun

tender shoots or twigs of shrubs and trees as food for cattle, deer, etc.

an act or instance of browsing.

Nearby words

brownsville, browntail moth, brownwood, browridge, browsable, browse, browser, browser skin, broz, brr, brt

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

SYNONYMS FOR browse

3 scan, skim, examine, peruse, check.

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR browse ON THESAURUS.COM

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

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for browse

You get to browse full menus by phone and receive confirmation when your order is being processed.
How Much Do You Tip A Robot Bartender?|Kayleigh Kulp|October 25, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Make it easy for me to browse all the new releases—and not just the titles you want to promote.
25 Things I Want from an Online Music Service (and Almost Never Get)|Ted Gioia|June 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Will millionaire buyers really be willing to browse for Monets alongside the Average Joe sorting paintings by Price: Low to High?
Amazon Opens Fine Art Market|Filipa Ioannou|August 8, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Employers can now browse these profiles and choose beautiful employees.
Lady Gaga's Fake Nail Sells for $12,000; Israeli Soldiers Reportedly Disciplined for Underwear Photo Shoot|The Fashion Beast Team|June 3, 2013|DAILY BEAST

Historians, journalists, and scholars regularly use the National Archives search engine to browse declassified material.
How Julian Assange Fooled the Media Once Again|Michael Moynihan|April 16, 2013|DAILY BEAST
After this he can be trusted to browse pretty much as he chooses.
Literature for Children|Orton Lowe
These are supposed to be afterwards covered with browse, hay, or rushes and the roof shingled with bark or thatched.
Shelters, Shacks and Shanties|D.C. Beard
As before, he traveled leisurely, pausing often to browse or to stare at some larger animal upon whose path he chanced.
Followers of the Trail|Zoe Meyer
Eventually it did move a few feet back from the waters edge and there appeared to browse on some dwarf birches.
The Barren Ground Caribou of Keewatin|Francis Harper
The ends may be enclosed by the addition of other trees—poles, browse, etc., roughly thatched to serve as a wind break.
Touring Afoot|Claude Powell Fordyce

British Dictionary definitions for browse

browse

/ (braʊz) /

verb

to look through (a book, articles for sale in a shop, etc) in a casual leisurely manner

computing to search for and read hypertext, esp on the Internet

(of deer, goats, etc) to feed upon (vegetation) by continual nibbling

noun

the act or an instance of browsing

the young twigs, shoots, leaves, etc, on which certain animals feed

Word Origin for browse

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

browse

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.

browse

verb (used with object), browsed, brows·ing.

verb (used without object), browsed, brows·ing.

noun

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Nearby words

Origin of browse

Examples from the Web for browse

British Dictionary definitions for browse

browse

verb

noun

Word Origin for browse

Word Origin and History for browse

browse