browse

[brouz]

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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.

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 for browse

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR browse ON THESAURUS.COM

3. scan, skim, examine, peruse, check.

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

Related Words for browsing

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

Examples from the Web for browsing

Contemporary Examples of browsing

“She spent 20 minutes browsing the shelves of Baby Gap,” a source said.
Kate Shops At Baby Gap For George
Tom Sykes
April 1, 2014
While browsing a Beverly Hills record store he was approached by a “weird dwarfish man with huge eyeglasses”.
The Week in Death: George Jacobs, Sinatra’s Domestic Confidant
The Telegraph
February 23, 2014
You just need to breach a fence and know their browsing areas.
Borana Joins the Fight to Save Kenya’s Rhinos…and Wants You to Help Too
Joanna Eede
February 18, 2014
While browsing through the archives, we at The Daily Beast stumbled upon this marvelous photograph.
Daily Beast Caption-Writing Contest
July 17, 2013
While browsing there, I overheard a staffer touting a film by Erika Lust to a middle-aged male customer as an FPA winner.
Organic, Fair-Trade Porn: On the Hunt for Ethical Smut
Rachel Kramer Bussel
April 13, 2013

Historical Examples of browsing

Litton went without his lunch that day, but he was browsing on memories of his visitor.
In a Little Town
Rupert Hughes
"I'll pass the butter," said he, while trying to pass the browsing goat.
The New Pun Book
Thomas A. Brown and Thomas Joseph Carey
The cab-horse, who was browsing near, lifted his head with a sigh.
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
L. Frank Baum
Marshes were replaced by meadows and browsing by grazing mammals.
The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4)
J. Arthur Thomson
They were browsing on the grass, unconscious that an enemy was near.
The Giraffe Hunters
Mayne Reid

British Dictionary definitions for browsing

browse

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 browsing

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.