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 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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST
While browsing through the archives, we at The Daily Beast stumbled upon this marvelous photograph.
Daily Beast Caption-Writing Contest||July 17, 2013|DAILY BEAST

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|DAILY BEAST
Soon ordered to take up our horses, (which were browsing) clean them off and harness up.
An Artilleryman's Diary|Jenkin Lloyd Jones
Then he jumped like a cat, for he saw huge things nosing about in the shoal water and browsing on the heavy fringes of the weeds.
The Jungle Book|Rudyard Kipling
Thither Wratislaw ultimately turned, dipping, browsing, reading a score of lines.
The Half-Hearted|John Buchan
On either hand rolled the prairie, dotted with groves and trees, browsing elk and deer.
La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West|Francis Parkman
It had grown smaller with the passing months, and a great hollow had been worn in its side by the browsing cattle.
Wheat and Huckleberries|Charlotte Marion (White) Vaile

British Dictionary definitions for browsing

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 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.

browse

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

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

noun

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED WORDS

Nearby words

Origin of browse

Examples from the Web for browsing

British Dictionary definitions for browsing

browse

verb

noun

Word Origin for browse

Word Origin and History for browsing

browse