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 Bavarian Bross, Brosst (“a bud”), Old Saxon brustian (“to sprout”). Doublet of brut, breast, and 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.

   I'm just browsing around.

   I stopped in several bookstores to browse.

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.
   • 1997, Colorado State Forest Service‎^[1]:

     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.

5. (archaic, transitive) To feed on, as pasture; to pasture on; to graze.
   • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Gardener’s Daughter; or, The Pictures”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 21:

     The fields between / Are dewy-fresh, brows'd by deep-udder'd kine, […]

Derived terms

• browsability
• browsable
• browseable
• browser
• browsewood
• browsewrap
• browsy
• nonbrowsing
• overbrowse
• unbrowsed

Translations

scan, casually look through

• Arabic: تَصَفَّحَ (taṣaffaḥa), اِسْتَعْرَضَ (istaʕraḍa)
• Catalan: navegar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 隨便看 / 随便看 (suíbiàn kàn), 閒逛 / 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), durchstöbern (de)
• Hungarian: átböngész (hu), böngész (hu), tallózik (hu)
• Indonesian: lihat (id), menelusuri (id)
• Italian: sfogliare (it), scartabellare (it)
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: pūtirotiro, whakaraprapa
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: مرور (fa) (morur)
• Polish: przeglądać (pl) impf
• Portuguese: observar (pt)
• Romanian: răsfoi (ro)
• Russian: просма́тривать (ru) impf (prosmátrivatʹ), просмотре́ть (ru) pf (prosmotrétʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: прегледати (pregledati)
• Spanish: vichar (es), bichar (es) (Americanism), curiosear (es), ojear (es)
• Swedish: botanisera (sv) (among things), bläddra (sv) (something written or printed, turning pages), ögna (igenom) (sv) (something written or printed)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: gözden geçirmek (tr)
• Vietnamese: đọc lướt qua

move about while sampling

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 隨便看 / 随便看 (suíbiàn kàn), 閒逛 / 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)
• Swedish: botanisera (sv)

navigate through hyperlinked documents

• Catalan: navegar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 瀏覽 / 浏览 (zh) (liúlǎn)

• Danish: browse, gennemblade
• Dutch: surfen (nl)
• Finnish: selata (fi)
• French: naviguer (fr)
• Georgian: დათვალიერება (datvaliereba)
• German: browsen (de), surfen (de)
• Hungarian: böngészik (hu)
• Indonesian: menelusuri (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)
• Romanian: naviga (ro)
• Scottish Gaelic: brabhsaich
• Serbo-Croatian: pregledati (sh) impf
• Slovene: brskati impf
• Spanish: navegar por, explorar (es)
• Swedish: navigera (sv), surfa (sv)
• Turkish: göz atmak (tr)

move about while eating parts of plants

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

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

• Danish: græsse
• Finnish: laiduntaa (fi)
• French: brouter (fr)
• German: grasen (de), äsen (de)
• Hungarian: legel (hu), legelész (hu), legelészik (hu)
• Indonesian: ramban (id)
• Latin: tondeō
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: beite

  Nynorsk: beite

• Portuguese: ramonear
• Russian: пасти́сь (ru) impf (pastísʹ)
• Spanish: ramonear (es)
• Swedish: beta (sv)
• Turkish: otlamak (tr)
• Walloon: betchter (wa), plitchoter (wa)
• Yiddish: פּאַשען (pashen)

Noun

browse (countable and uncountable, plural browses)

1. (uncountable) Young shoots and twigs.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

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

   • 1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

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

2. (uncountable) Fodder for cattle and other animals.
   • 1997, Colorado State Forest Service‎^[2]:

     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.

   • 2007, Texas Parks and Wildlife Service‎^[3]:

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

3. (countable) The act of browsing through something.

   I had a browse in the old bookshop.

4. (countable) That which one browses through; something to read.
   • 1899, Rudyard Kipling, Stalky & Co.:

     Here he buried himself in a close-printed, thickish volume which had been his chosen browse for some time.

Further reading

• “browse”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “browse”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Bowers, Bowser, bowers, bowres, bowser

Danish

Verb

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

1. (computing) to browse

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

browse

1. inflection of browsen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative
   4. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive

German

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

browse

1. inflection of browsen:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
   3. singular imperative