scan

[skan]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR scan ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with object), scanned, scan·ning.

to glance at or over or read hastily: to scan a page.

to examine the particulars or points of minutely; scrutinize.

to peer out at or observe repeatedly or sweepingly, as a large expanse; survey.

to analyze (verse) as to its prosodic or metrical structure; read or recite (verse) so as to indicate or test the metrical form.

to read (data) for use by a computer or computerized device, especially using an optical scanner.

Television. to traverse (a surface) with a beam of light or electrons in order to reproduce or transmit a picture.

Radar. to traverse (a region) with a beam from a radar transmitter.

Medicine/Medical, Biology. to examine (a body, organ, tissue, or other biologically active material) with a scanner.

verb (used without object), scanned, scan·ning.

to examine the meter of verse.

(of verse) to conform to the rules of meter.

Television. to scan a surface or the like.

noun

an act or instance of scanning; close examination.

a visual examination by means of a television camera, as for the purpose of making visible or relaying pictures from a remote place: a satellite scan of the dark side of the moon; video scans of property listings available to customers.

a particular image or frame in such video observation or a photograph made from it.

Medicine/Medical, Biology.

examination of the body or an organ or part, or a biologically active material, by means of a technique such as computed axial tomography, nuclear magnetic resonance, ultrasonography, or scintigraphy.
the image or display so obtained.

Origin of scan

1350–1400; Middle English scannen, variant of *scanden < Late Latin scandere to scan verse, Latin: to climb (see ascend)

Related formsscan·na·ble, adjectiveself-scanned, adjectiveun·scan·na·ble, adjectiveun·scanned, adjective

Can be confusedscam scan

Synonyms for scan

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR scan ON THESAURUS.COM

1. study, investigate, inspect, search. 2. skim.

Scan.

Scandinavia.

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

Related Words for scan

search, browse, flash, examine, scour, skim, check, regard, look, rumble, inquire, study, overlook, sweep, contemplate, investigate, survey, riffle, consider, riff

Examples from the Web for scan

Contemporary Examples of scan

Prince William was seen clutching an envelope, when they left, most likely containing images of the scan.
Royal Baby Due In April
Tom Sykes
October 20, 2014
If this was indeed the 12-week scan, we wil probably soon get an announcement from the palace concerning Kate's due date.
Kate Middleton Pictured Leaving Clinic: New Privacy Row
Tom Sykes
October 17, 2014
So we need to think about the risk-benefit ratio of every scan we do.
Are Routine Scans Causing Cancer?
Dale Eisinger
September 17, 2014
Lately, Richard Dawkins seems to scan the world for sore spots, take a good poke, and revel in the ensuing outcry.
Richard Dawkins Would Fail Philosophy 101
Elizabeth Picciuto
August 28, 2014
Though the words may sound and scan the same, there is a world of difference in threat each poses to others.
It’s Not Time to Worry About China’s Plague Just Yet
Kent Sepkowitz
July 23, 2014

Historical Examples of scan

We summon all our knowledge of the past and we scan all signs of the future.
United States Presidents' Inaugural Speeches
Various
Kirkwood shook his head, turning to scan the seascape with a gloomy gaze.
The Black Bag
Louis Joseph Vance
No sentiment of curiosity impelled them to raise their heads and scan the tree.
Abbe Mouret's Transgression
Emile Zola
Then he looked at me, and his brooding eyes seemed to scan my face.
The Strolling Saint
Raphael Sabatini
As he sat thus, I had time to mark him well, and scan every detail of his appearance.
Confessions Of Con Cregan
Charles James Lever

British Dictionary definitions for scan

scan

verb scans, scanning or scanned

(tr) to scrutinize minutely

(tr) to glance over quickly

(tr) prosody to read or analyse (verse) according to the rules of metre and versification

(intr) prosody to conform to the rules of metre and versification

(tr) electronics to move a beam of light, electrons, etc, in a predetermined pattern over (a surface or region) to obtain information, esp either to sense and transmit or to reproduce a television image

(tr) to examine data stored on (magnetic tape, etc), usually in order to retrieve information

to examine or search (a prescribed region) by systematically varying the direction of a radar or sonar beam

physics to examine or produce or be examined or produced by a continuous charge of some variableto scan a spectrum

med to obtain an image of (a part of the body) by means of a scanner

noun

the act or an instance of scanning

med

the examination of a part of the body by means of a scannera brain scan; ultrasound scan
the image produced by a scanner

Derived Formsscannable, adjective

Word Origin for scan

C14: from Late Latin scandere to scan (verse), from Latin: to climb

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 scan

late 14c., "mark off verse in metric feet," from Late Latin scandere "to scan verse," originally, in classical Latin, "to climb, rise, mount" (the connecting notion is of the rising and falling rhythm of poetry), from PIE *skand- "to spring, leap, climb" (cf. Sanskrit skandati "hastens, leaps, jumps;" Greek skandalon "stumbling block;" Middle Irish sescaind "he sprang, jumped," sceinm "a bound, jump").

Missing -d in English is probably from confusion with suffix -ed (see lawn (n.1)). Sense of "look at closely, examine minutely (as one does when counting metrical feet in poetry)" first recorded 1540s. The (opposite) sense of "look over quickly, skim" is first attested 1926. Related: Scanned; scanning.

1706, "close investigation," from scan (v.). Meaning "act of scanning" is from 1937; sense of "image obtained by scanning" is from 1953.

scan in Medicine

scan

[skăn]

v.

To move a finely focused beam of light or electrons in a systematic pattern over a surface in order to reproduce or sense and subsequently transmit an image.

To examine a body or a body part with a CAT scanner or similar scanning apparatus.

To search stored computer data automatically for specific data.

n.

The act or an instance of scanning.

Examination of a body or body part by a CAT scanner or similar scanning apparatus.

A picture or an image that is produced by this means.

Related formsscan′na•ble adj.scan′ner n.