browse

Meaning

Verb

1. To scan, to casually look through in order to find items of interest, especially without knowledge of what to look for beforehand.
2. To move about while sampling, such as with food or products on display.
3. (transitive) To navigate through hyperlinked documents on a computer, usually with a browser.
4. (intransitive) To move about while eating parts of plants, especially plants other than pasture, such as shrubs or trees.
5. (archaic) To feed on, as pasture; to pasture on; to graze.

Noun

1. (uncountable) Young shoots and twigs.
2. (uncountable) Fodder for cattle and other animals.
3. (countable) The act of browsing through something.
4. (countable) That which one browses through; something to read.
5. (Cornwall, uncountable) Bruised fish used as bait.

Synonyms

graze

pasture

crop

browsing

leaf through

surf

scan

riffle

range

scroll

📜

watch

⌚

flip

regard

skim

skip

eat

🍽️

flick

thumb

shop

leaf

look over

look through

run down

see

👀

shepherd

stall

study

survey

swan

🦢

taste

tergiversate

look out on

tour

travel

vagabond

view

browse through

nibble at

surf the net

bit

perusa

bite

chew

chop

circuit

circulate

degust

equivocate

eyeball

feeding

Translations

feuilleter

blättern

brouter

hojear

brucare

parcourir

äsen

navegar

grasen

φυλλομετρώ

paître

doorbladeren

ξεφυλλίζω

βλαστάρι

Pronounced as (IPA)

/bɹaʊz/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: browsen

Cognate with Bavarian: Bross

Cognate with Old Saxon: brustian

In summary

From Middle English browsen, from Old French brouster, broster (“to nibble off buds, sprouts, and bark; browse”), from brost (“a sprout, shoot, bud”), from a Germanic source, perhaps Frankish *brust (“shoot, bud”), from Proto-Germanic *brustiz (“bud, shoot”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrews- (“to swell, sprout”). Cognate with Bavarian Bross, Brosst (“a bud”), Old Saxon brustian (“to sprout”). Doublet of brut, breast, and brush.