different between browse vs widget

English

Etymology

Middle English browsen, from Old French brouster, broster (“to nibble off buds, sprouts, and bark; browse”), from brost (“a sprout, shoot, bud”), from a Germanic source, perhaps Frankish *brust (“shoot, bud”), from Proto-Germanic *brustiz (“bud, shoot”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?rews- (“to swell, sprout”). Cognate with Bavarian Bross, Brosst (“a bud”), Old Saxon brustian (“to sprout”). Doublet of brut, breast, and brush.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b?a?z/
• Homophone: brows
• Rhymes: -a?z

Verb

browse (third-person singular simple present browses, present participle browsing, simple past and past participle browsed)

1. To scan, to casually look through in order to find items of interest, especially without knowledge of what to look for beforehand.
2. To move about while sampling, such as with food or products on display.
3. (transitive, computing) To navigate through hyperlinked documents on a computer, usually with a browser.
4. (intransitive, of an animal) To move about while eating parts of plants, especially plants other than pasture, such as shrubs or trees.
   • 1997, Colorado State Forest Service

     Also, when planting to provide a source of browse for wintering deer and elk, protect seedlings from browsing during the first several years; an electric fence enclosure can offer effective protection.

5. (archaic, transitive) To feed on, as pasture; to pasture on; to graze.
   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, The Gardener's Daughter; or, The Pictures

     Fields […] browsed by deep-udder'd kine.

Derived terms

• browser
• browsable

Translations

Noun

browse (plural browses)

1. Young shoots and twigs.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.10:

     And with their horned feet the greene gras wore, / The whiles their Gotes upon the brouzes fedd […]
2. Fodder for cattle and other animals.
   • 1997, Colorado State Forest Service

     Also, when planting to provide a source of browse for wintering deer and elk, protect seedlings from browsing during the first several years; an electric fence enclosure can offer effective protection.

   • 2007, Texas Parks and Wildlife Service

     In the Panhandle Area, bison eat browse that includes mesquite and elm.

Further reading

• browse in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• browse in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Bowers, Bowser, bowers, bowres, bowser

Danish

Verb

browse (imperative brows, present browser, past browsede, past participle browset)

1. (computing) to browse

Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

browse

1. first-person singular present indicative of browsen
2. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of browsen
3. imperative of browsen

German

Verb

browse

1. inflection of browsen:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
   3. singular imperative

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?w?d??t/
• Rhymes: -?d??t

Etymology 1

Coined by George S. Kaufman in his play Beggar on Horseback (1924).

Noun

widget (plural widgets)

1. A placeholder name for an unnamed, unspecified, or hypothetical manufactured good or product, typically as an example for purposes of explaining concepts.

   Synonyms: thingy, gizmo, sprocket; see also Thesaurus:thingy
2. A floating device inside a beer can, meant to create foam when opened.
3. A small scraping tool consisting of a blade and a handle, commonly used to remove paint from glass and other smooth surfaces.

   Synonym: scraper

Translations

Etymology 2

Blend of window +? gadget

Noun

widget (plural widgets)

1. (computing, graphical user interface) Any one of the components of a computer application's graphical user interface, such as a Cancel button or text input box that a user interacts with.

   Synonym: control

Translations

Further reading

• widget on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• graphical widget on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• software widget on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “widget”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

Spanish

Etymology

From English widget.

Pronunciation

Noun

widget m (plural widgets)

1. (computing) widget