Borrowed fromFrenchzeste.[1]
zest (countable anduncountable,pluralzests)
- Theouterskin of acitrusfruit, used as aflavouring orgarnish.
The orangezest gives the strong flavor in this dish.
- Generalvibrance of flavour.
I addzest to the meat by rubbing it with a spice mixture before grilling.
1959,Peter De Vries,The Tents of Wickedness[1], Boston: Little, Brown & Co., The Treehouse, Chapter 7, page92:He rolled his own cigarettes from a sack of Bull Durham, spilling flakes into his beer, which no doubt gained inzest thereby.
1978,Isaac Bashevis Singer, translated by Joseph Singeret al.,Shosha[2], New York: Fawcett Crest, Part One, Chapter Five, 1, p. 99:Bashele’s dishes tasted as good as they had when I was a child. No one could give to the borscht such a sweet-and-sourzest as Bashele.
- (by extension)Enthusiasm;keen enjoyment;relish;gusto. A state of beingzesty.
- 1728,Edward Young,Love of Fame, the Universal Passion, Satire II inThe Works of the Reverend Edward Young, London: P. Brown, H. Hill & S. Payne, 1765, Volume I, p. 85,[3]
- Almighty vanity! to thee they owe
- Theirzest of pleasure, and theirbalm of woe.
- 1807,Thomas Cogan,An Ethical Treatise on the Passions, Bath: Hazard & Binns, Part 1, Disquisition 1, Chapter 1, Section 1 “On the utility of the Passions and Affections,” p. 51,[4]
- Liberality of disposition and conduct gives the highestzest and relish to social intercourse.
1842, [anonymous collaborator ofLetitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXXIV, inLady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London:Henry Colburn, […],→OCLC,page139:And never did Isabella relieve a suffering fellow-creature, or assist a beloved sister, without blessing the dear, distant one that had made her rich, and kissing her sweet boy with newzest, as the son of his father.
1928,D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter9, inLady Chatterley’s Lover, Gutenberg edition,[Florence, Italy]: [ […] Tipografia Giuntina, […]],→OCLC; republished asLady Chatterley’s Lover (eBook no. 0100181h.html)[5], Australia:Project Gutenberg Australia, August 2011, archived fromthe original on11 November 2020:Once started, Mrs. Bolton was better than any book, about the lives of the people. She knew them all so intimately, and had such a peculiar, flameyzest in all their affairs, it was wonderful, if just atrifle humiliating to listen to her.
1962,James Baldwin,Another Country[6], New York: Dell, published1963, Book Two, Chapter 2, p. 221:The singers, male and female, wore blue jeans and long hair and had morezest than talent.
2008 January–February, “70 Ways to Improve Every Day of the Week”, inMen's Health, volume23, number 1,→ISSN, page135:59sneak in some red Smuggle a bottle of wine, two glasses, and a corkscrew into a long matinee. Red wine is rich in life-extending antioxidants, and the caper will addzest even to a bad movie.
- (rare) The woody, thick skin enclosing thekernel of awalnut.
2006, N. J. Nusha,On the Edge (Short Stories), Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, page85:The greenzest of walnuts was used by the women to shine their teeth and it also gave a beautiful rust colour to their lips.
- (slang, LGBTQ, derogatory) State of being aflamboyant oreffeminatehomosexual.
Terms derived fromzest (noun)
enthusiasm
- Bulgarian:охота (bg) f(ohota),склонност (bg) f(sklonnost)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin:熱心 /热心 (zh)(rèxīn)
- Czech:elán m,nadšení (cs) n,radost (cs) f
- Finnish:into (fi),innostus (fi)
- French:entrain (fr) m
- Galician:entusiasmo (gl) m,azo m
- Georgian:ენთუზიაზმი(entuziazmi),გატაცება(gaṭaceba),ინტერესი (ka)(inṭeresi)
- German:Lust (de) f,Freude (de) f,Begeisterung (de) f,Genuss (de) m
- Hebrew:התלהבות (he),הנאה (he),חשק (he)
- Hungarian:lelkesedés (hu)
- Italian:entusiasmo (it) m
- Japanese:熱意 (ja)(netsui)
- Māori:wana,whiwhita
- Marathi:जोम m(jom)
- Norwegian:entusiasme m,begeistring m
- Polish:entuzjazm (pl) m,bigiel (pl) m,werwa (pl) f,zapał (pl) m
- Portuguese:entusiasmo (pt),gana (pt) f
- Spanish:entusiasmo (es),brío (es) m
- Ukrainian:запал m(zapal),завзяття n(zavzjattja),потяг (uk) m(potjah)
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state of being effeminate or a flamboyant homosexual
zest (third-person singular simple presentzests,present participlezesting,simple past and past participlezested)
- (cooking) Toscrape the zest from a fruit.
- To make morezesty.
1792, James Cobb,The Siege of Belgrade, a Comic Opera, in Three Acts, page47:Strains ſo artleſs tho’ we proffer,
Hearts o’er flowingzest the offer.
From obsoletezeste(“membrane around walnut kernel”), fromMiddle Frenchzec(“object of no importance”), probably ofimitative origin expressing the idea of smallness or triviality. Probably influenced by another onomatopoeia,Middle Frenchzeste(“sound of a hit or blow”).
zest m (pluralzests)
- zest(of a fruit)
FromEnglishzest
zest c
- zest; the outer skin of a citrus fruit
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, launched 2000.