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Zoom

//zuːm// intj, noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Intj

1
Representing a humming sound
"Makowsky was playing the Bassgeige. Zoom... zoom-zoom.... The rest of the orchestra would join in presently."
2
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."
3
Suggesting a sudden change, especially an improvement or an increase

Noun

1
A humming noise from something moving very fast.
"the zoom of traffic"
2
A video teleconferencing call.
"Then, later that day, I logged onto a zoom call and my mother and I set up our yoga mats in the living room, as we had been doing a couple of times a week during the pandemic."
3
A videoconference using Zoom.
"I have two Zooms tomorrow: one in the morning and another at noon."
4
the act of rising upward into the air wordnet
5
A quick ascent. figuratively

Show 5 more definitions

6
Alternative form of zoom (“a video teleconference call.”). alt-of, alternative, broadly
7
a rapid rise wordnet
8
A big increase. figuratively
9
A video teleconference service or website. informal
10
An augmentation of a view, by varying the focal length of a lens, or digitally.
"What's the zoom like on your camera?"

Verb

1
To move fast with a humming noise.
"We zoomed along the highway."
2
To participate in a video teleconferencing call.
3
To communicate with someone using the Zoom videoconferencing software. ambitransitive
"Whether you’re Zooming it in or not sitting down on the job, here’s how to do it right."
4
rise rapidly wordnet
5
To zoom climb.

Show 8 more definitions

6
Alternative form of zoom (“to participate in a video teleconferencing call”). alt-of, alternative, broadly
7
move along very quickly wordnet
8
To move rapidly.
9
move with a low humming noise wordnet
10
To go up sharply.
"prices zoomed"
11
To change the focal length of a zoom lens.
12
To manipulate a display so as to magnify or shrink it.
"to zoom in or zoom out"
13
To check someone out; to investigate someone that one is interested in. transitive
""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?""

Etymology

Etymology 1

Uncertain. The verb was first attested c. 1892, as a noun in 1918 and as an interjection in 1942. Apparently related to Scots soom (“to buzz, hum”), dialectal English and Scots soom, swoom, sweem (“to spin or twirl at high speed”). Compare also dialectal English sweem (“to swoon, become dizzy or faint”).

Etymology 2

Etymology 3

Etymology 4

A genericization of the trademark Zoom, a video teleconferencing software.

Etymology 5

A genericization of the trademark Zoom, a video teleconferencing software.

Etymology 6

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."

Etymology 7

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