1. To eat lightly, try different dishes; SYN. graze.
2. To look around casually and randomly, as through files and directories on a computer.

ETYM Old Fren. brost, broust, sprout, shoot, French brouter browse, browsewood, prob. from Old High Germ. burst, German borste, bristle; cf. also Armor. brousta to browse. Related to Bristle, Brush.
(Homonym: brows).
1. Reading superficially or at random; SYN. browsing.
2. The act of feeding by continual nibbling; SYN. browsing.

To scan a database, a list of files, or the Internet, either for a particular item or for anything that seems to be of interest. Generally, browsing implies observing, rather than changing, information. In unauthorized computer hacking, browsing is a (presumably) nondestructive means of finding out about an unknown computer after illegally gaining entry.