I agree with you. No, it is not permitted to consult a Scrabble dictionary during your turn.
The dictionary should only be used to adjudicate on challenges (i.e. when a player disputes the validity of a word played by their opponent), and even then it should be done by a third party if possible.
If you don't have a third person around to do the checking, you can prevent a player from 'dishonest browsing' by using the official online Scrabble dictionary to do your lookups.
That's the official take, anyway. But as I often say, if you're playing a game of Scrabble against your sister on the kitchen table, you can use any rule you like ;-)