To riffle means to flip quickly through the pages of a book, magazine, or stack of papers. When you riffle through a book, you let the pages fall rapidly from your thumb, creating that distinctive fluttering sound. You might riffle through a dictionary looking for a specific word, or riffle through your notebook searching for yesterday's homework.

The word captures both the motion and the sound: that quick riffle-riffle-riffle as pages cascade past. Librarians riffle through returned books, checking for damage. Card players riffle shuffle their decks, splitting the cards in half and letting them fall together in an alternating pattern.

You can also riffle through other things besides paper. Someone might riffle through a drawer looking for a missing sock, or riffle through a pile of photographs searching for one particular picture. The word suggests moving quickly but not carefully: you're scanning or searching rather than examining each item closely. When you need to find something fast and you know roughly where it should be, you riffle through until it catches your eye.