browse Definition

browse
verb, tr & intr browsed, browsing

1. To look through a book, etc, or look around a shop, etc in a casual, relaxed or haphazard way.

Thesaurus: look, peruse, scan, skim, survey, leaf through.
2. Said of certain animals, eg deer: to feed by continually nibbling on young buds, shoots, leaves and stems of trees and shrubs, as opposed to grazing.
3. computing.
To examine information stored in (a database, etc).

noun

1. An act of browsing.
2. Young shoots, twigs, leaves, etc used as food for cattle or other animals.

Derivative: browser
noun

Etymology: 16c in verb and noun sense 2: from French broust a new shoot.