scanning

verblook over, scrutinize lightly

Synonyms for scanning

verb look over, scrutinize lightly

Antonyms for scanning

Word Origin & History

late 14c., "mark off verse in metric feet," from Late Latin scandere "to scan verse," originally, in classical Latin, "to climb, rise, mount" (the connecting notion is of the rising and falling rhythm of poetry), from PIE *skand- "to spring, leap, climb" (cf. Sanskrit skandati "hastens, leaps, jumps;" Greek skandalon "stumbling block;" Middle Irish sescaind "he sprang, jumped," sceinm "a bound, jump").

Missing -d in English is probably from confusion with suffix -ed (see lawn (n.1)). Sense of "look at closely, examine minutely (as one does when counting metrical feet in poetry)" first recorded 1540s. The (opposite) sense of "look over quickly, skim" is first attested 1926. Related: Scanned; scanning.

Example Sentences forscanning

Some other men and a woman were scanning the hoisting machinery with superior looks.

It was to-day's advertising section he was scanning, and the hour not yet one.

They flitted to and fro, scanning wide bands of the surface of Dara.

She looked from one to the other of them, scanning each face in turn.

Captain Bergen asked himself the question while he was scanning the island.

"The man writes a mighty nice hand," said Maria, scanning the superscription.

The man was standing stock-still, as if scanning the premises.

“It looks like more rain,” worried Meg, scanning the clouds.

It hung in the air, pulsating, scanning what was taking place below.

I cursed and wheeled the eye in circles, scanning the surrounding country.