browse

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To look through things in a relaxed way, without searching for anything in particular

   I spent the afternoon browsing in the bookshop.

2. 2
   verb

   To look at pages or information on the internet

   She was browsing the web for cheap flights.

3. 3
   noun

   Young leaves, twigs, and shoots that animals such as deer eat

   A deer needs to eat about twenty pounds of browse every day.

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.

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