scan

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To look through something quickly to find a particular piece of information.

   I scanned the newspaper headlines while waiting for the taxi.

2. 2
   verb

   To make a digital copy of a document or picture using a scanner.

   Can you scan this photo and email it to me?

3. 3
   verb

   To read a code or label with an electronic device.

   The cashier scanned each item at the till.

4. 4
   verb

   To search an area carefully by moving your eyes or a beam across it.

   The guards scanned the dark horizon for any movement.

5. 5
   noun

   A medical image of the inside of the body made by special equipment.

   The doctor studied the brain scan closely.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Scan comes from Latin scandere, “climb.” It was first used in English for analysing poetic metre, by comparison with raising and lowering the foot to mark rhythm; from there it developed the senses “assess,” “examine minutely,” and, by the late 18th century, “look at searchingly.”

From late Middle English scanne (“to mark off verse to show metrical structure”), from earlier scanden, from Late Latin scandere (“to scan verse”), from Classical Latin scandō (“to climb, rise, mount”), from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to jump, dart, climb, scale, scan”).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary