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

Yes, his journalists had used private investigators with databases to legally obtain phone numbers, so they didn't have to leaf through phone books.

From BBC • Jan. 17, 2026

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

We still neatly package misery for students, leaving it as something to stumble upon as they leaf through files, as if it's as ordinary as a rule of civil procedure or a trespassing statute.

From Salon • Jan. 23, 2022

As the owners, they can listen to the 31 tracks on its two CDs, ogle its engraved nickel-silver box and leaf through the leather-bound parchment book that are part of the item’s overall package.

From New York Times • Oct. 20, 2021

Here the ancient mouse took a while to leaf through the pages.

From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques

Related Words

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