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to move quickly or suddenly with a loud humming or buzzing sound:
cars zooming by on the freeway.
to fly an airplane suddenly and sharply upward at great speed for a short distance, as in regaining alt-tude, clearing an obstacle, or signaling.
movies, television. to bring a subject, scene, etc., into closeup or cause it to recede into a long shot using a and while maintaining focus.
informal. to increase or rise suddenly and sharply:
rents would zoom without rent control laws.
to cause (an airplane) to zoom.
to fly over (an obstacle) by zooming.
the act or process of zooming.
a zooming sound.
informal. .
also called zoom shot. movies, television. a shot in which a subject, scene, or action is brought closer or made to recede by the use of a .
zoom in (on),

to bring (a subject, scene, etc.) into closeup by using a zoom lens:
to zoom in for a look at the injured man; to zoom in on a candidate at a political convention.
to examine more closely or in greater detail; focus on:
the panel zoomed in on the subject of abortion.

contemporary examples

“i believe when people p-ss, they zoom into the souls of the people who love them most,” said short.
nora ephron memorial: warm, funny tributes by tom hanks, meryl streep, and rosie o’donnell rebecca dana july 8, 2012

i joke around and say i wish my name was marty mcfly, and i had a delorean and i could zoom back there and talk to these people.
kirk cameron of ‘growing pains’ says he’s not h-m-phobic, explains christian beliefs ramin setoodeh march 19, 2012

unlike humans, it can watch for days, even years, watch an entire city, zoom in close, use heat sensors and infrared.
why drones make us nervous josh dzieza may 16, 2013

mouse over the map to see instant state-wide results or zoom in for a closer look at the county level.
the star-crossed hamlet david thomson october 9, 2008

yes, it may be individually rational, but let’s zoom back to 30,000 feet and look at the whole society.
don’t have enough to worry about? here’s one more thing: low growth may be here to stay. megan mcardle march 3, 2013

historical examples

then the experienced pilot lifted her in a zoom that was simply magnificent, and they were off on their adventure at last.
eagles of the sky ambrose newcomb

after that for some time only the zoom of the motor was heard.
gypsy flight roy j. snell

cutting short their zoom dave and freddy rolled their spitfires over and let them drop by the nose.
dave dawson with the r.a.f r. sidney bowen

jack had to “zoom” several times to get out of reach of the sh-lls.
air service boys in the big battle charles amory beach

then he noticed o’malley, on his right, zoom upward, while allison looped off to the left.
a yankee flier in italy rutherford g. montgomery

verb
to make or cause to make a continuous buzzing or humming sound
to move or cause to move with such a sound
(intransitive) to move very rapidly; rush: we zoomed through town
to cause (an aircraft) to climb briefly at an unusually steep angle, or (of an aircraft) to climb in this way
(intransitive) (of prices) to rise rapidly
noun
the sound or act of zooming
see zoom lens

1886, of echoic origin. gained popularity c.1917 as aviators began to use it; zoom lens is 1936.

graphics
to show a smaller area of an image at a higher magnification (“zoom in”) or a larger area at a lower magnification (“zoom out”), as though using a zoom lense on a camera.
unlike in an optical system, zooming in on a computer image does not necessarily increase the amount of detail displayed since this is limited by what is actually stored in the image. similarly, you cannot zoom out beyond the full size of the image.
(1997-10-24)