zoom

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A humming noise from something moving very fast.

   the zoom of traffic

2. 2
   noun

   An augmentation of a view, by varying the focal length of a lens, or digitally.

   What's the zoom like on your camera?

3. 3
   verb

   To move fast with a humming noise.

   We zoomed along the highway.

4. 4
   verb

   To go up sharply.

   prices zoomed

5. 5
   verb

   To manipulate a display so as to magnify or shrink it.

   to zoom in or zoom out

6. 6
   verb

   To check someone out; to investigate someone that one is interested in.

   "It boggles my mind what kind of mentality is at work there." He pointed to two recent issues of the magazine that featured cover stories were about Whitney Houston and Luther Vandross, two pop music icons whose sexual orientations have been widely speculated on in Black lesbian and gay communities. "It makes you wonder if it's an insult to the intelligence of Essence’s lesbian and gay leadership," Cunningham said. "Who's really zooming whom here?"

7. 7
   intj

   Representing a humming sound

   Makowsky was playing the Bassgeige. Zoom... zoom-zoom.... The rest of the orchestra would join in presently.

8. 8
   intj

   Suggesting something moving quickly

   I would dance a few light fantastic steps to show which way the wind lay, and zoom! Like a breeze I was on the piano stool and doing a velocity exercise.

Etymology

From Zoom, a videoconferencing software by Zoom Video Communications; renamed as such (from Saasbee) in May 2012 by Jim Scheinman after the American children's book Zoom City (1998) by Thacher Hurd for ostensibly encapsulating creativity, happiness and exploration. Scheinman had "been saving the name Zoom for a long time."