scan
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /skæn/
rhymes: -æn
Forms: form: scans
form: scanning
form: scanned
form: scanned
Etymology: 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 (“I climb, rise, mount”), from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to jump, dart, climb, scale, scan”).
Senses: examples: text: She scanned the passage carefully but could not find what she was looking for.
text: He scanned the horizon.
text: Yet the incident did not in the least diminish my respect for my teacher. I was by nature blind to the faults of elders. Later I came to know of many other failings of this teacher, but my regard for him remained the same. For I had learnt to carry out the orders of elders, not to scan their actions.
ref: 1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter ii
text: Slowly, he scanned the horizon, listening, watching for the signs he had been taught.
ref: 1965, Frank Hebert, “Book Three: The Prophet”, in Dune (Science Fiction), New York: Ace Books, →OCLC, page 402:
text: As the 1857 to Manchester Piccadilly rolls in, I scan the windows and realise there are plenty of spare seats, so I hop aboard. The train is a '221'+'220' combo to allow for social distancing - a luxury on an XC train as normally you're playing sardines, so I make the most of it.
ref: 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 68:
glosses: To examine sequentially, carefully, or critically; to scrutinize; to behold closely.
examples: text: to scan the hard drive for errors
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To examine sequentially, carefully, or critically; to scrutinize; to behold closely.
To inspect, analyse or go over, often to find something.
glosses: To look about for; to look over quickly.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To look about for; to look over quickly.
To perform lexical analysis; to tokenize.
examples: text: to scan a photograph
text: to scan internal organs by means of computed tomography
text: Pencil drawings don't scan very well.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
medicine
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To create an image of something with the use of a scanner.
examples: text: to scan a barcode
text: to scan a QR code
text: In the dispute with the RMT about scanning tickets, Jackson said it was the right thing to do to pay conductors something to scan tickets. Northern pays two pence per scan, Jackson noted, adding that ticket scanning helps to cut fraud and increase staff visibility.
ref: 2024 February 7, Philip Haigh, “Network News: TPE MD: consider impact of strikes on passengers”, in RAIL, number 1002, page 11:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To read with an electronic device.
examples: text: But ere these matchless heights I dare to scan, / There is a spot should not be pass'd in vain,— / Morat ! the proud, the patriot field ! where man / May gaze on ghastly trophies of the slain,[…]
ref: 1816, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Third, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza LXIII, page 36:
qualifier: originally
glosses: To mount by steps; to go through with step by step.
examples: text: In such cases as these, almost any one with a good ear will "scan" the verse correctly enough without instruction. It is not proposed to give here a list of Shakspere's slurred and contracted words; […]
ref: 1886, Francis Barton Gummere, A Handbook of Poetics for Students of English Verse, page 218:
topics: communications
journalism
literature
media
poetry
publishing
writing
glosses: To read or mark so as to show a specific metre.
examples: text: You're right, sir, it doesn't scan very well in the English, but in the Gaelic it's sheer poetry. Have you the Gaelic?
ref: 1998, Milton Acorn, Cedric Smith, edited by James Deahl, The Road to Charlottetown: A Play, UnMon Northland:
topics: communications
journalism
literature
media
poetry
publishing
writing
glosses: To conform to a metrical structure.
Derived terms: forescan
Related terms: topics: poetry
writing
journalism
literature
communications
publishing
media
word: scansion