zone out

verb

zoned out; zoning out; zones out

intransitive verb

1

US, informal : to become oblivious to one's surroundings especially in order to relax

zone out in front of the TV

2

US, informal : to become unfocused or inattentive because of tiredness or boredom

Students began to zone out towards the end of the assembly.

Examples of zone out in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Everyone has their own way of relieving stress, zoning out from the hassles of day-to-day life. —Jim Clash, Forbes, 28 Oct. 2024

And to be quite honest, I was literally zoned out, just waiting for the band to come back out — like, OK, when is halftime? —Mikael Wood, Los Angeles Times, 9 Oct. 2024

After all, human supervisors get bored and eventually zone out. —Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, 9 Oct. 2024

Yet his acknowledgment that just about his favorite activity was zoning out in front of the television sort of presaged — beyond his more famous endeavors — where the entire culture was heading. —Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 1 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

of uncertain origin

Note: Attested slightly earlier is zoned "intoxicated." Zone out is perhaps in part by analogy with zone in, in part after space out, given the relative semantic proximity of space and zone. Note also that zoned is phonetically similar to zonked.

First Known Use

1970, in the meaning defined at sense 1