hone in

English

Etymology

By confusion between hone and home.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /hoʊn ɪn/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /həʊn ɪn/
• Hyphenation: hone‧in

Verb

hone in (third-person singular simple present hones in, present participle honing in, simple past and past participle honed in)

1. (proscribed) Alternative form of home in.
   • 2016 April 18, Harry McGee, “All you need to know about tight race for those Seanad seats”, in The Irish Times:

     More than half of those are completely ignored by de Róiste. He hones in on only 400 of those, scattered around the country.

   • 2021 July 15, “Sometimes solecisms can reveal linguistic ingenuity”, in The Economist‎^[1], →ISSN:

     On June 12th The Economist’s pages featured an activist investor “honing in on the dearth of energy experience” on a company’s board. A few readers honed in on a solecism: […]

   • 2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway facts: Aylesbury (2009)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 61:

     The mainstream media hones in on bad news stories where UK railways are concerned, yet gives scant attention to the many items of good news emerging from the network.

References

• “hone”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.