scan

scan1 [ skæn ] verb **

▸ 1 look carefully

▸ 2 read quickly

▸ 3 copy with equipment

▸ 4 photograph inside of something

▸ 5 about poetry

1. ) transitive to look at something very carefully, because you hope or expect to see a particular person or thing:

He scanned her face but there were no signs of emotion.

scan something for someone/something: Ella scanned the crowd for any sign of Geoff.

anxiously/eagerly scan something: The pilot was anxiously scanning the sky for other air traffic.

a ) intransitive or transitive if a machine or computer program scans something, it examines it in order to look for a particular thing:

A program is supplied which scans for viruses and removes them.

Every fifty meters there was a camera scanning the road.

b ) transitive to examine an area using SONAR or RADAR equipment in order to find objects in it:

The spacecraft scans the Earth's seas with radar instruments.

2. ) scan or scan through intransitive or transitive to read something very quickly, in order to get a general idea of its meaning or to find particular information:

Merrill opened the letter, scanned it briefly, and threw it away.

Tony scanned through the television programs in the local newspaper.

scan something for something: She scanned the paper for any news of them.

3. ) intransitive or transitive to use a piece of equipment to read and store information in DIGITAL form:

You can use photographs and then scan them onto your computer.

His job was to scan bar codes in the store.

scan in something (=scan something and store it in your computer): You can scan in a photograph of your home.

scan something into something: Documents are scanned into a computer and then converted to electronic form.

a ) if a piece of equipment scans a document, photograph, etc., it changes it into a form that can be stored in a computer:

A printer that can fax, scan, and copy saves space.

4. ) transitive to use a piece of equipment to produce a picture of the inside of a part of your body:

In one test, the subjects' brains were scanned while they read to themselves.

a ) to use a piece of equipment to produce a picture of the inside of an object:

He waited while the X-ray machine scanned his luggage.

b ) to use a piece of equipment to see the developing baby in a pregnant woman

5. ) intransitive TECHNICAL if poetry scans, it has a regular RHYTHM (=pattern of beats):

These are poems that neither rhyme nor scan.

scan

scan 2 [ skæn ] noun count *

1. ) a medical test that uses a special piece of equipment to produce a picture of the inside of your body:

a brain scan

a ) a medical test that uses a special piece of equipment to produce a picture of a developing baby inside a pregnant woman: ULTRASOUND

2. ) an act of reading something very quickly, in order to get a general idea of its meaning or to find particular information:

a quick scan of the morning mail