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Zero in

verb

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To focus one's aim; to zoom in and center (on something).

    "The pilot zeroed in on the bunker and launched a guided missile."

  2. 2
    adjust (as by firing under test conditions) the zero of (a gun) wordnet
  3. 3
    To successfully narrow down a search (for).

    "We have zeroed in on the source of the problem."

  4. 4
    direct onto a point or target, especially by automatic navigational aids wordnet
  5. 5
    To concentrate or focus one's attention (on a task).

    "One member of the check fraud team will zero in on the fingerprints."

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  1. 6
    To converge (on). idiomatic

    "At the spring sale, everyone zeroed in on the bargain clothes."

Etymology

The phrase possibly comes from adjusting a sighting mechanism of a firearm to minimise the discrepancy between where the sight points and where a bullet lands on a target. Another possible source is the Cartesian coordinate system in mathematics. In the coordinate system, points are defined relative to an origin (point of reference) labeled O, which has an (x,y) coordinate pair of (0,0).

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