browse

Meanings

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. To navigate through hyperlinked documents on a computer, usually with a browser.
4. To move about while eating parts of plants, especially plants other than pasture, such as shrubs or trees.
5. To feed on, as pasture; to pasture on; to graze.

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

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.