scan

[skan] /skæn/
verb (used with object), scanned, scanning.
1.
to glance at or over or read hastily:
to scan a page.
2.
to examine the particulars or points of minutely; scrutinize.
3.
to peer out at or observe repeatedly or sweepingly, as a large expanse; survey.
4.
to analyze (verse) as to its prosodic or metrical structure; read or recite (verse) so as to indicate or test the metrical form.
5.
to read (data) for use by a computer or computerized device, especially using an optical scanner.
6.
Television. to traverse (a surface) with a beam of light or electrons in order to reproduce or transmit a picture.
7.
Radar. to traverse (a region) with a beam from a radar transmitter.
8.
Medicine/Medical, Biology. to examine (a body, organ, tissue, or other biologically active material) with a scanner.
verb (used without object), scanned, scanning.
9.
to examine the meter of verse.
10.
(of verse) to conform to the rules of meter.
11.
Television. to scan a surface or the like.
noun
12.
an act or instance of scanning; close examination.
13.
a visual examination by means of a television camera, as for the purpose of making visible or relaying pictures from a remote place:
a satellite scan of the dark side of the moon; video scans of property listings available to customers.
14.
a particular image or frame in such video observation or a photograph made from it.
15.
Medicine/Medical, Biology.
  1. examination of the body or an organ or part, or a biologically active material, by means of a technique such as computed axial tomography, nuclear magnetic resonance, ultrasonography, or scintigraphy.
  2. the image or display so obtained.
Origin
1350-1400; Middle English scannen, variant of *scanden < Late Latin scandere to scan verse, Latin: to climb (see ascend)
Related forms
scannable, adjective
self-scanned, adjective
unscannable, adjective
unscanned, adjective
Can be confused
scam, scan.
Synonyms
1. study, investigate, inspect, search. 2. skim.

Scan.

1.
Scandinavia.
Examples from the web for scan
  • However, additional contrast-enhanced or higher-resolution scans will add to the scan time.
  • Students are also tested on their ability to quickly scan and identify a list of internal organs.
  • Users are required to make some claim about who they are-by swiping a card, for example-before a scan.
  • Brain scan allows unconscious patient to communicate.
  • Ardent label readers scan nutritional labels for ingredients that they don't want in their diet.
  • Or you could ask your photo lab not to cut the film, then scan it yourself and feed it to your movie-editing software of choice.
  • Inform the technologist if you must urinate before the completion of the scan.
  • Then they were to scan the image into their computer and repeat it to create an entirely new pattern.
  • When he is less confident, his scan could still be a useful guide for the wielder of the knife.
  • Observers in these light planes scan for potentially troublesome icebergs.
British Dictionary definitions for scan

scan

/skæn/
verb scans, scanning, scanned
1.
(transitive) to scrutinize minutely
2.
(transitive) to glance over quickly
3.
(transitive) (prosody) to read or analyse (verse) according to the rules of metre and versification
4.
(intransitive) (prosody) to conform to the rules of metre and versification
5.
(transitive) (electronics) to move a beam of light, electrons, etc, in a predetermined pattern over (a surface or region) to obtain information, esp either to sense and transmit or to reproduce a television image
6.
(transitive) to examine data stored on (magnetic tape, etc), usually in order to retrieve information
7.
to examine or search (a prescribed region) by systematically varying the direction of a radar or sonar beam
8.
(physics) to examine or produce or be examined or produced by a continuous charge of some variable: to scan a spectrum
9.
(med) to obtain an image of (a part of the body) by means of a scanner
noun
10.
the act or an instance of scanning
11.
(med)
  1. the examination of a part of the body by means of a scanner: a brain scan, ultrasound scan
  2. the image produced by a scanner
Derived Forms
scannable, adjective
Word Origin
C14: from Late Latin scandere to scan (verse), from Latin: to climb
Word Origin and History for scan
v.

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.

n.

1706, "close investigation," from scan (v.). Meaning "act of scanning" is from 1937; sense of "image obtained by scanning" is from 1953.

scan in Medicine

scan (skān)
v. scanned, scan·ning, scans

  1. 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.

  2. To examine a body or a body part with a CAT scanner or similar scanning apparatus.

  3. To search stored computer data automatically for specific data.

n.

  1. The act or an instance of scanning.

  2. Examination of a body or body part by a CAT scanner or similar scanning apparatus.

  3. A picture or an image that is produced by this means.

scan'na·ble adj.
scan'ner n.
scan in Technology


1. ["A Parallel Implementation of the SCAN Language", N.G. Bourbakis, Comp Langs 14(4):239-254 (1989)].
2. A real-time language from DEC.
[Are these the same language?]
(1994-11-01)


1. (computer peripheral) See scanner.
2. (circuit design) See scan design.
3. (functional programming) See scanl, scanr.
4. An algorithm for scheduling multiple accesses to a disk. A number of requests are ordered according to the data's position on the storage device. This reduces the disk arm movement to one "scan" or sweep across the whole disk in the worst case. The serivce time can be estimated from the disk's track-to-track seek time, maximum seek time (one scan), and maximum rotational latency.
Scan-EDF is a variation on this.
(1995-11-15)