browse

English

Etymology

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 dialectal English brut (“to browse”), Bavarian Bross, Brosst (“a bud”), Old Saxon brustian (“to sprout”). Related to breast, brush.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɹaʊz/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: brows
• Rhymes: -aʊz

Verb

browse (third-person singular simple present browses, present participle browsing, simple past and past participle browsed)

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, computing) To navigate through hyperlinked documents on a computer, usually with a browser.
4. (intransitive, of an animal) To move about while eating parts of plants, especially plants other than pasture, such as shrubs or trees.
5. (archaic, transitive) To feed on, as pasture; to pasture on; to graze.
   • Tennyson

     Fields […] browsed by deep-uddered kine.

Derived terms

• browser
• browsable

Translations

scan, casually look through

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 隨便看, 随便看 (suíbiàn kàn), 閒逛 (zh), 闲逛 (zh) (xiánguàng), 逛一逛 (guàngyīguàng)

• Czech: prohlížet si, skenovat (cs) impf, bloudit očima
• Danish: skimme (da) (very quickly), gennemse (thoroughly), bladre (books or documents), ose (in a shop)
• Dutch: doorbladeren (nl)
• Finnish: katsella (fi), tutkailla (fi); selailla (fi) (of media)
• French: feuilleter (fr), parcourir (fr)
• Georgian: დათვალიერება (datvaliereba)
• German: blättern (de), durchsuchen (de), stöbern (de)
• Hungarian: átböngész, böngész (hu)
• Indonesian: melihat-lihat (id)
• Italian: osservare (it)
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can

• Maori: pūtirotiro
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: مرور‎ (fa) (morur)
• Polish: przeglądać (pl) impf
• Portuguese: observar (pt)
• Russian: просма́тривать (ru) impf (prosmátrivatʹ), просмотре́ть (ru) pf (prosmotrétʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: прегледати (pregledati)
• Spanish: navegar (es)
• Swedish: bläddra (sv)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: gözden geçirmek (tr)
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• Westrobothnian: blaver, blâda
• Yiddish: אַדורכן‎ (adurkhn)

move about while sampling

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 隨便看, 随便看 (suíbiàn kàn), 閒逛 (zh), 闲逛 (zh) (xiánguàng), 逛一逛 (guàngyīguàng)

• Finnish: kierrellä (fi); maistella (fi) (of food and drink)

• French: parcourir (fr), regarder (fr)
• Galician: petiscar
• Indonesian: ramban (id)

navigate through hyperlinked documents

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 瀏覽 (zh), 浏览 (zh) (liúlǎn)

• Danish: browse
• Dutch: surfen (nl)
• Finnish: selata (fi)
• French: naviguer (fr)
• Georgian: დათვალიერება (datvaliereba)
• German: browsen, surfen (de)
• Hungarian: böngészik (hu)

• Indonesian: menjelajah (id)
• Italian: navigare (it)
• Japanese: 閲覧する (ja) (えつらんする, etsuran suru)
• Polish: przeglądać (pl) impf
• Portuguese: navegar (pt)
• Scottish Gaelic: brabhsaich
• Serbo-Croatian: pregledati (sh) impf
• Slovene: brskati impf
• Turkish: göz atmak (tr)

move about while eating parts of plants

• Armenian: արածել (hy) (aracel)
• Bulgarian: паса (bg) (pasa)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 吃草 (chīcǎo), 啃綠葉, 啃绿叶 (kěn lǜyè)

• Finnish: laiduntaa (fi)
• French: brouter (fr)
• German: grasen (de), äsen (de)

• Indonesian: ramban (id)
• Latin: tondeō
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: beite

  Nynorsk: beite

• Russian: пастись (ru) impf (pastisʹ)
• Swedish: beta (sv)
• Turkish: otlamak (tr)

Noun

browse (plural browses)

1. Young shoots and twigs.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.10:

     And with their horned feet the greene gras wore, / The whiles their Gotes upon the brouzes fedd […]

   • Dryden

     Sheep, goats, and oxen, and the nobler steed, / On browse, and corn, and flowery meadows feed.

2. Fodder for cattle and other animals.
   • Texas Parks and Wildlife Service, 2007

     In the Panhandle Area, bison eat browse that includes mesquite and elm.

   • Colorado State Forest Service, 1997

     Also, when planting to provide a source of browse for wintering deer and elk, protect seedlings from browsing during the first several years; an electric fence enclosure can offer effective protection.

Further reading

• browse in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• browse in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Bowers, Bowser, bowers, bowres, bowser

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Danish

Verb

browse (imperative brows, present browser, past browsede, past participle browset)

1. (computing) to browse

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

browse

1. first-person singular present indicative of browsen
2. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of browsen
3. imperative of browsen

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German

Verb

browse

1. First-person singular present of browsen.
2. First-person singular subjunctive I of browsen.
3. Third-person singular subjunctive I of browsen.
4. Imperative singular of browsen.