zone out

Idioms  

1. Stop paying attention, dissociate oneself from a situation. Also, engage in a mindless activity. For example, When Felicia starts talking about her ailments and her friends' ailments, I totally zone out. This idiom also occurs in the passive, be zoned out. It originally alluded to narcotic intoxication and then was broadened to other kinds of dissociation. For a near synonym, see tune out, def. 2. [Slang; second half of 1900s]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

zone out

He tries to zone out when it does.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2025

“I just found it very enjoyable to zone out and have the right kind of music on and just sort of keep going,” Mark said.

From Salon ● Apr. 19, 2025

He beat them in the strike zone, out of the strike zone and lived on the edges of the strike zone where productive approaches and quality at-bats go to die.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 27, 2024

Sitting now between his mother and father on the sofa in their home in Mombasa, a city on Kenya's coast, he says he tends to zone out from time to time.

From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2023

If Tyson was there, the pair would talk, but when he left, Reggie would listen to the radio and totally zone out, sometimes drying the same spot for five minutes.

From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel

Related Words

• lose consciousness
• pass out