zest

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After dinner the men went off for a smoke, and the girls retired for their siesta in an atmosphere as hazy as if they too had indulged in the fragrant weed They went to the swimming hole later in the day, but somehow the zest was all gone from the sport, with the two leading spirits distrait and moody, avoiding direct speech with each other, and preserving an attitude of injured pride.

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Definitions (18)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun Flavor or interest; piquancy.
  2. noun The outermost part of the rind of an orange, lemon, or other citrus fruit, used as flavoring.
  3. noun Spirited enjoyment; gusto: "At 53 he retains all the heady zest of adolescence” (Kenneth Tynan).

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Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

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Examples (50)

  • After dinner the men went off for a smoke, and the girls retired for their siesta in an atmosphere as hazy as if they too had indulged in the fragrant weed They went to the swimming hole later in the day, but somehow the zest was all gone from the sport, with the two leading spirits distrait and moody, avoiding direct speech with each other, and preserving an attitude of injured pride. —  Blue Bonnet's Ranch Party
  • In private life, he is genial and always good-natured, ready for a joke at all times, and enjoys his leisure hours with a zest which is quickened by previous earnest toil. —  The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2, No. 2, August, 1862 Devoted to Literature and National Policy
  • For women and other delights, as we understand the affair, are according to our zest; and our zest is a thing of the mind's devising, added unto desire as the edge of a sword is superadded to the sword. —  The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay
  • But to labour with zest, and to give of your best, —  Rhymes of a Red Cross Man
  • She turned back to the old ways with zest, away from him. —  Women in Love
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

vivacity ·  eagerness ·  earnestness ·  ardour ·  vigour ·  vehemence ·  relish ·  gaiety ·  animation ·  freshness ·  alacrity ·  pathos
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Obsolete French, orange or lemon peel.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Old French zeste, one of the partitions which divide the kernel of a walnut, also the peel of an orange or lemon, from Latin schistos, from Greek σχισ, σ1τός, divided, cleft: see schist.
  2. from zest, n.
 

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/zɛst/
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