zero in on

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zero in on

1. To adjust one's aim until precisely pointing at (a target).

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

2. To successfully narrow down a search for.

   We have zeroed in on the source of the problem.

   See if you can zero in on the caller.

3. To concentrate or focus one's attention on (a task).

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

4. (idiomatic) To converge on.

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

   • 2019, Barney Ronay, Liverpool’s waves of red fury and recklessness end in joyous bedlam (in The Guardian, 8 May 2019)

     With 79 minutes gone, the most celebrated team of the modern age had been reduced to bunch of mooching, stumbling yellow-shirted spectators. A Champions League season that had seemed to be zeroing in on another coronation for Lionel Messi had been wrenched, gleefully, the other way.

• home in on

• zero in