" zone "

[Noun]  | "zone" | \ ˈzōn \

1: any of five great divisions of the earth's surface with respect to latitude and temperature

2: a portion of the surface of a sphere included between two parallel planes

3: girdle, belt

Origin: 15th century ;

 Borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French, borrowed from Latin zōna "belt, girdle, imaginary band encircling the earth," borrowed from Greek zṓnē, going back to Indo-European *i̯eh3s-neh2, whence also, with stem variation, Russian Church Slavic pojasnĭ "belt," Sanskrit rā́snā "girdle" (*yā́snā crossed with raśanā́ "rope, bridle, girth"); derivative from a verbal base *i̯eh3s- "encircle, girdle," whence, with various stem formatives, Old Church Slavic pojašǫ, pojasati "to gird," Lithuanian júosiu, júosti, Albanian ngjesh- "gird, encircle, compress," Greek zṓnnȳmi, aorist ézōsa "(I) gird(ed)"; from a verbal adjective in *-t- Lithuanian júosta "band, zone," Greek zōstós "belted, girded," Avestan yāsta-;

[Noun]  | "zone defense" 

1: a system of defense (as in basketball or football) in which each player guards an assigned area rather than a specified opponent

Origin: 1927 ;

[Noun]  | "zone refining" 

1: a technique for the purification of a crystalline material and especially a metal in which a molten region travels through the material to be refined, picks up impurities at its advancing edge, and then allows the purified part to recrystallize at its opposite edge —called also zone melting

Origin: 1952 ;

[Noun]  | "buffer zone" 

1: a neutral area separating conflicting forces; broadly : an area designed to separate

Origin: 1908 ;

[Noun]  | "comfort zone" 

1: the temperature range within which one is comfortable

2: the level at which one functions with ease and familiarity

Origin: 1923 ;

[Noun]  | "crumple zone" 

1: a section of an automobile body designed to absorb the force of an impact in order to protect the passengers

Origin: 1973 ;

[Verb]  | "zone" 

1: to surround with a zone : encircle

2: to arrange in or mark off into zones; specifically : to partition (a city, borough, or township) by ordinance into sections reserved for different purposes (such as residence or business)

Origin: 1782 ;

 Derivative of {see: |zone:1|zone:1};

[Verb]  | "zone in" 

1: to move toward or focus attention on an objective —usually used with on

Origin: 1958 ;

 Perhaps based on {see: |zone:2|zone:2}, though the sense recalls both the rhyming phrasal verb {see: |hone in|hone in} and its putative source home in on, as well as the phrasal verb zoom in—hence zone in could conceivably be a blend of hone in and zoom in. Compare {see: |zone out|zone out}.;

[Verb]  | "zone out" 

1: to become oblivious to one's surroundings especially in order to relax

2: to become unfocused or inattentive because of tiredness or boredom

Origin: 1970 ;

 Of uncertain origin;

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

[Adjective]  | "zone" 

1: zonal

2: of, relating to, or occurring in a zone defense

Origin: 1795 ;

 From attributive use of {see: |zone:1|zone:1};

[Noun]  | "zone" 

[Verb]  | "zone out"