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

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

From Salon

Just when I thought I’d perused all the pricier “New Releases” — record store lingo for used records recently stocked — I saw an entire section of “$7.98 New Releases” and let out an audible groan, because of course I was going to have to leaf through every single one of those, too.

From New York Times

Visitors are free to open filing cabinets and leaf through original crime-scene photos, the trial transcript, index cards bearing names of potential witnesses, police reports and Hauptmann’s account of his life, which was typed onto translucent paper so brittle it crinkles when handled.

From Seattle Times

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

From New York Times

Related Words

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