• (America) enPR: zōn, IPA: /zoʊn/
• (RP), IPA: /zəʊn/

zone (plural zones)

1. (geography, now rare) Each of the five regions of the earth's surface into which it was divided by climatic differences, namely the torrid zone (between the tropics), two temperate zones (between the tropics and the polar circles), and two frigid zones (within the polar circles).
   • 1567, Arthur Golding, translating Ovid, Metamorphoses, I:

     And as two Zones doe cut the Heaven upon the righter side, / And other twaine upon the left likewise the same devide, / The middle in outragious heat exceeding all the rest: / Even so likewise through great foresight to God it seemed best, / The earth encluded in the same should so devided bee […].

   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970 ↗, partition I, section 2, member 4, subsection vi:

     To avoid which, we will take any pains  […] ; we will dive to the bottom of the sea, to the bowels of the earth, five, six, seven, eight, nine hundred fathom deep, through all five zones, and both extremes of heat and cold […].

   • 1841, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, Volume 2, [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=OLUTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA270&dq=%22defies+every+wind,+outrides+every+tempest,+and+invades+every+zone%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1QGkU9KEHMnJkQXe34GwCg&ved=0CDYQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22defies%20every%20wind%2C%20outrides%20every%20tempest%2C%20and%20invades%20every%20zone%22&f=false page 270],

     And while idle curiosity may take its walk in shady avenues by the ocean side, commerce […] defies every wind, outrides every tempest, and invades every zone.

2. Any given region or area of the world.
3. A given area distinguished on the basis of a particular characteristic, use, restriction, etc.

   There is a no-smoking zone that extends 25 feet outside of each entrance.

   The white zone is for loading and unloading only.

   Files in the Internet zone are blocked by default, as a security measure.

4. A band or area of growth encircling anything.

   a zone of evergreens on a mountain; the zone of animal or vegetable life in the ocean around an island or a continent

5. A band or stripe extending around a body.
6. (crystallography) A series of planes having mutually parallel intersections.
7. (baseball, informal) The strike zone.

   That pitch was low and away, just outside of the zone.

8. (ice hockey) Every of the three parts of an ice rink, divided by two blue lines.

   Players are off side, if they enter the attacking zone before the puck.

9. (handball) A semicircular area in front of each goal.
10. (chiefly, sports) A high-performance phase or period.

    I just got in the zone late in the game: everything was going in.

11. (basketball, American football) A defensive scheme where defenders guard a particular area of the court or field, as opposed to a particular opposing player.
12. (networking) That collection of a domain's DNS resource records, the domain and its subdomains, that are not delegated to another authority.
13. (Apple computing) A logical group of network devices on AppleTalk.
14. (now literary) A belt or girdle.
    • 17th c, John Dryden, 2005, Pygmalion and the Statue, Paul Hammond, David Hopkins (editors), The Poems of John Dryden: Volume Five: 1697-1700'', page 263 ↗,

      Her tapered fingers too with rings are graced, / And an embroidered zone surrounds her slender waist.

    • 1671, John Milton, Paradise Regained, Book II, lines 211 to 220.

      quote en

    • 1779, Thomas Forrest, A Voyage to New Guinea and the Moluccas from Balambangan, page 21 ↗,

      From the waiſt downwards, they wore a looſe robe, girt with an embroidered zone or belt about the middle, with a large claſp of gold, and a precious ſtone.

    • 18th c, William Collins, The Passions: An Ode for Music, 1810, Alexander Chalmers, Samuel Johnson (editors), The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper, Volume 13, [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=vnEJAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA204&dq=%22Loose+were+her+tresses+seen,+her+zone%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=kfijU7n0Boy48gWHzIDIBA&ved=0CGMQ6AEwDA#v=onepage&q=%22Loose%20were%20her%20tresses%20seen%2C%20her%20zone%22&f=false page 204],

      Love fram'd with Mirth a gay fantastic round, / Loose were her tresses seen, her zone unbound,

    • 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto I, LV, 1827, The Works of Lord Byron, including The Suppressed Poems, [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=fD30P3gsPboC&pg=PA565&dq=%22Her+zone+to+Venus,+or+his+bow+to+Cupid%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VwCkU-6VO8Pp8AX4_YDIBg&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22Her%20zone%20to%20Venus%2C%20or%20his%20bow%20to%20Cupid%22&f=false page 565],

      There was the Donna Julia, whom to call / Pretty were but to give a feeble notion / Of many charms in her as natural / As sweetness to the flower, or salt to ocean, / Her zone to Venus, or his bow to Cupid / (But this last simile is trite and stupid).

    • 1844, Charles Dickens, The life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, 1865, Works of Charles Dickens, Volume VI: Martin Chuzzlewit—Volume II, page 421 ↗,

      […] it was the prettiest thing to see her girding on the precious little zone, and yet obliged to have assistance because her fingers were in such terrible perplexity; […].

15. (geometry) The curved surface of a frustum of a sphere, the portion of surface of a sphere delimited by parallel planes.
    • 1835, Charles Davies, David Brewster (editors and translators), Adrien-Marie Legendre, Elements of Geometry and Trigonometry, [1794, Eléments de géométrie], page 293 ↗,

      To find the surface of a spherical zone.

      Rule.—Multiply the altitude of the zone by the circumference of a great circle of the sphere, and the product will be the surface (Book VIII. Prop. X. Sch. 1).

    • 2014, John Bird, Engineering Mathematics, page 183 ↗,

      A zone of a sphere is the curved surface of a frustum. […] Determine, correct to 3 significant figures (a) the volume of the frustum of the sphere, (b) the radius of the sphere and (c) the area of the zone formed.

16. (geometry, loosely, perhaps by meronymy) A frustum of a sphere.
17. A circuit; a circumference.
    • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book V, lines 558 to 560.

      quote en

• (area distinguished on the basis of a particular characteristic etc) area, belt, district, region, section, sector, sphere, territory
• (baseball: strike zone)
• (handball: area in front of a goal) crease
• (high performance phase or period)
• (networking: that collection of a domain's DNS resource records)
• (computing: logical group of network devices on AppleTalk)
• (religion: belt worn by priests in the Greek Orthodox church)

• French: zone
• German: Bereich, Distrikt, Eingabefeld, Feld, Gebiet, Gürtel, Landstrich, Zone
• Portuguese: zona
• Russian: зо́на
• Spanish: zona

• Spanish: zona

• German: Fixierungszeitraum

• German: Zone
• Spanish: zona

• German: Zone
• Spanish: zona

• Russian: по́яс

zone (zones, present participle zoning; past and past participle zoned)

1. To divide into or assign sections or areas.

   Please zone off our staging area, a section for each group.

2. To define the property use classification of an area.

   This area was zoned for industrial use.

3. To enter a daydream state temporarily, for instance as a result of boredom, fatigue, or intoxication; to doze off.

   I must have zoned while he was giving us the directions.

   Everyone just put their goddamn heads together and zoned. (Byron Coley, liner notes for the album "Piece for Jetsun Dolma" by Thurston Moore)

4. To girdle or encircle.

• (enter a daydream state) zone out, doze off (if also sleeping; See Thesaurus:fall asleep).

• German: absperren, verzonen
• Spanish: dividir en zona

• Spanish: declarar

• German: mit den Gedanken abschweifen, sich nicht konzentrieren