Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to lose consciousness or concentration.

1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 176: I sat there zoned out until the room was almost dark.
1989		J. Doyle College Sl. Dict. 🌐 zone [UCSB] lose contact with the world (e.g. daydream in class).
1989		P. Munro Sl. U. 211: zone out to daydream, stare into space, veg, be spaced out.
1990		J. Wambaugh Golden Orange (1991) 159: You’re zonin. How ’bout comin back to planet earth?
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 91: When you zone, you’re useless, homes.
2005		J. Stahl ‘Twilight of the Stooges’ in Love Without (2007) 147: I zone in and out, grinning like I haven’t seen Miss Chatty Cheeks five thousand times already.
2013		J. Stahl Happy Mutant Baby Pills 172: She told a story about finding a woman with a shoe inside her [...] and I’d zoned out.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 21: Bun cro till you zone out .
2023		F. Bill Back to the Dirt 20: [S]he’d been zoning out, losing track of time, going incoherent,.

2. to use medication to induce a third party into a loss of focus and concentration.

1986

J. Ellroy Suicide Hill 16: ‘I won't let you medicate me,’ he said. ‘I'll fight you and the whole L.A. County Sheriff's Department before I let you zone me out on that Prolixin shit’ .

3. to be intoxicated by a hallucinogenic drug.

1992

J. Mowry Way Past Cool 30: Deek would zone out on the ratty old sofa.

4. to relax.

1997		L. Davies Candy 18: Right now I could zone out on TV and try and enjoy the stone.
2000		Guardian Guide 15–21 Jan. 13: We just tell jokes, watch TV and zone out like everyone else.
2015		J. Stahl OG Dad 260: Letting your thirty-monther start her day zoning in front of the big screen [...] is a sure way to guarantee future success and fulfillment.