browser

Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

1.An animal that browses. [1913 Webster]

2.(Computers) a computer program that permits the user to view multiple electronic documents in a flexible sequence by the process of activating hypertext "buttons" within one document, which serves as a reference to the location of related document. The term is currently (late 1990's) used mostly for programs which allow traversing hypertext paths in documents on the internet. A typical browser will permit the user to easily reverse direction, and view again documents previously accessed. [PJC]

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing

<hypertext> A program which allows a person to read hypertext. The browser gives some means of viewing the contents of nodes (or "pages") and of navigating from one node to another.

Netscape Navigator, NCSA Mosaic, Lynx, and W3 are examples for browsers for the web. They act as clients to remote web servers.

(1996-05-31)

The Jargon File

A program specifically designed to help users view and navigate hypertext, on-line documentation, or a database. While this general sense has been present in jargon for a long time, the proliferation of browsers for the World Wide Web after 1992 has made it much more popular and provided a central or default techspeak meaning of the word previously lacking in hacker usage. Nowadays, if someone mentions using a ‘browser’ without qualification, one may assume it is a Web browser.