leaf through

Idioms  

1. Turn pages, as in browsing or searching for something. For example, There she sat, leafing through the various catalogs. This expression employs leaf in the sense of “turn over the leaves of a book,” a usage dating from the mid-1600s.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

leaf through

In your own kitchen, leaf through old family cookbooks or memory-laden recipes and see which ones could use a gentle refresh.

From Salon ● Dec. 20, 2025

You can leaf through the full list here, with the latest additions shown in bold.

From New York Times ● Jan. 19, 2024

"Ah, this is it," he says as he begins to leaf through.

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2023

Some city ordinances weren’t even indexed, forcing Birch and Karabian to leaf through the longhand lawbooks page by page, wearing special archival gloves.

From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2023

He handed it over to her, and she began to leaf through it silently.

From "Anger Is a Gift" by Mark Oshiro

Related Words

• gather
• interpret
• know
• learn
• refer to
• scan
• see
• study
• translate
• view