1. (

• scan

) the act of scanning; systematic examination of a prescribed region; "he made a thorough scan of the beach with his binoculars" ;

2. (

• scan ,
• CAT_scan

) an image produced by scanning; "he analyzed the brain scan"; "you could see the tumor in the CAT scan" ;

1. (

• scan ,

) examine minutely or intensely; "the surgeon scanned the X-ray" ;

2. (

• scan ,
• skim ,
• rake ,
• glance_over ,
• run_down

) examine hastily; "She scanned the newspaper headlines while waiting for the taxi" ;

3. (

• scan

) make a wide, sweeping search of; "The beams scanned the night sky" ;

4. (

• scan

) conform to a metrical pattern ;

5. (

• scan

) move a light beam over; in electronics, to reproduce an image ;

6. (

• scan

) read metrically; "scan verses" ;

7. (

• read ,
• scan

) obtain data from magnetic tapes or other digital sources; "This dictionary can be read by the computer" ;