Meaning & Definition of Scan in English

1. The act of scanning

• Systematic examination of a prescribed region

• "He made a thorough scan of the beach with his binoculars"

2. An image produced by scanning

• "He analyzed the brain scan"

• "You could see the tumor in the cat scan"

1. Examine minutely or intensely

• "The surgeon scanned the x-ray"

2. Examine hastily

• "She scanned the newspaper headlines while waiting for the taxi"

3. Make a wide, sweeping search of

• "The beams scanned the night sky"

4. Conform to a metrical pattern

5. Move a light beam over

• In electronics, to reproduce an image

6. Read metrically

• "Scan verses"

7. Obtain data from magnetic tapes

• "This dictionary can be read by the computer"