- scan
- [[t]skæ̱n[/t]]
scans, scanning, scanned1) VERB When you scan written material, you look through it quickly in order to find important or interesting information.
[V n] She scanned the advertisement pages of the newspapers...
[V through n] I haven't read much into it as yet. I've only just scanned through it.
N-SINGScan is also a noun.I just had a quick scan through your book again.
2) VERB: no passive When you scan a place or group of people, you look at it carefully, usually because you are looking for something or someone.[V n] The officer scanned the room...
[V n for n] She was nervous and kept scanning the crowd for Paul...
[V prep] He raised the binoculars to his eye again, scanning across the scene.
3) VERB If people scan something such as luggage, they examine it using a machine that can show or find things inside it that cannot be seen from the outside.Derived words:scanning N-UNCOUNT...routine scanning of luggage.
4) VERB: usu passive If a picture or document is scanned into a computer, a machine passes a beam of light over it to make a copy of it in the computer.[be V-ed into/onto n] The entire paper contents of all libraries will eventually be scanned into computers...
[be V-ed in/on] Designs can also be scanned in from paper.
5) VERB If a radar or sonar machine scans an area, it examines or searches it by sending radar or sonar beams over it.[V n] The ship's radar scanned the sea ahead.
6) N-COUNT: usu with supp A scan is a medical test in which a machine sends a beam of X-rays over a part of your body in order to check that it is healthy.He was rushed to hospital for a brain scan.
...a breast scan to check for cancer.
7) N-COUNT If a pregnant woman has a scan, a machine using sound waves produces an image of her womb on a screen so that a doctor can see if her baby is developing normally.8) VERB: usu with brd-neg If a line of a poem does not scan, it is not the right length or does not have emphasis in the right places to match the rest of the poem.He had written a few poems. Sid told him they didn't scan.
English dictionary. 2008.
