scan

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To examine closely.
2. v. To look over quickly and systematically: scanning the horizon for signs of land.
3. v. To look over or leaf through hastily: scanned the newspaper while eating breakfast.
4. v. To analyze (verse) into metrical patterns.
5. v. Electronics To move a finely focused beam of light or electrons in a systematic pattern over (a surface) in order to reproduce or sense and subsequently transmit an image.
6. v. Electronics To move a radar beam in a systematic pattern over (a sector of sky) in search of a target.
7. v. Computer Science To search (stored data) automatically for specific data.
8. v. Medicine To examine (a body or body part) with a CAT scanner or similar scanning apparatus.
9. v. To digitally encode (text, for example) with an optical scanner.
10. v. To analyze verse into metrical patterns.
11. v. To conform to a metrical pattern.
12. v. Electronics To undergo electronic scanning.
13. n. The act or an instance of scanning.
14. n. Scope or field of vision.
15. n. Examination of a body or body part by a CAT scanner or similar scanning apparatus.
16. n. A picture or image produced by this means.
17. n. A single sweep of the beam of electrons across a television screen.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To climb; mount.
2. To examine by counting the metrical feet or syllables; read or recite so as to indicate the metrical structure.
3. Hence To go over and examine point by point; examine minutely or nicely; scrutinize.
4. To follow or agree with the rules of meter: as, lines that scan well.
5. n. An abbreviation of Scandinavian.

Wiktionary

1. v. To examine sequentially, part by part.
2. v. computing To create a digital copy of an image using a scanner.
3. v. To look about for.
4. v. poetry To fit or conform to a specific meter.
5. v. obsolete To mount by steps; to go through with step by step.
6. n. An instance of scanning.
7. n. The result or output of a scanning process.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. obsolete To mount by steps; to go through with step by step.
2. v. Specifically (Pros.), to go through with, as a verse, marking and distinguishing the feet of which it is composed; to show, in reading, the metrical structure of; to recite metrically.
3. v. To go over and examine point by point; to examine with care; to look closely at or into; to scrutinize.
4. v. To examine quickly, from point to point, in search of something specific.
5. v. (Electronics) To form an image or an electronic representation of, by passing a beam of light or electrons over, and detecting and recording the reflected or transmitted signal.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. read metrically
2. v. conform to a metrical pattern
3. v. move a light beam over; in electronics, to reproduce an image
4. v. obtain data from magnetic tapes
5. n. an image produced by scanning
6. v. examine hastily
7. n. the act of scanning; systematic examination of a prescribed region
8. v. examine minutely or intensely
9. v. make a wide, sweeping search of