homing

1. 1
   adjective

   Adjusting its own flight path to lock onto and hit a target; or, of a weapon, one that fires self-steering projectiles.

   Like a hawk that keeps re-aiming at its prey as the prey darts away.

   The drone fired a homing torpedo that corrected its course as the submarine dived.

   Players eventually unlock a homing weapon that tracks targets through cover.

   Similarguided, self-guided, smart

   Oppositeunguided, dumb

   Note

   Gamer's shorthand for a shot that chases its target. It works before a noun, as in a homing missile, and just as easily after be, as a warning: the blue bullets are homing. It can even be graded, more homing or most homing, for attacks that track harder than others. The image comes from home in on, which is why it means steering toward a target rather than returning to an owner.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of home.

   Released a hundred miles from the loft, the birds were homing to their owner within a few hours.

   Some breeders believe that training a young bird early makes homing easier for it later.

   Note

   Two jobs share one spelling, both resting on the intransitive verb meaning to return to an owner. After be, it tracks a return under way: the pigeons were homing. As a noun, it names the ability itself, as in a talent for homing. Because the verb takes no object, the destination needs a preposition: homing to the loft. The self-steering adjective shares the spelling but aims at a target, not a home.

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