ZEST • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Zest

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/zɛst/ Listen

noun

Zest n.

A piece of orange or lemon peel, or the aromatic oil which may be squeezed from such peel, used to give flavor to liquor, etc.

Hence, something that gives or enhances a pleasant taste, or the taste itself; an appetizer; also, keen enjoyment; relish; gusto. "Almighty Vanity! to thee they owe Their zest of pleasure, and their balm of woe." "Liberality of disposition and conduct gives the highest zest and relish to social intercourse."

The woody, thick skin inclosing the kernel of a walnut. (Obs.)

verb

Zest v. t. (past & past part. zested; pres. part. zesting)

To cut into thin slips, as the peel of an orange, lemon, etc.; to squeeze, as peel, over the surface of anything.

To give a relish or flavor to; to heighten the taste or relish of; as, to zest wine.

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Etymology of 'Zest'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Zest" Quotes from Famous Books

... are delicate, and require constant care and supervision; but that only adds a keener zest to the attractive task of breeding them, the more so owing to the fact that as mothers they do not shine, being very difficult to manage, and generally manifesting a strong dislike to rearing their ...

— Dogs and All About Them • Robert Leighton

... complete good-humour, I proposed he should introduce me to the French officers, henceforth to become my fellow-passengers. There were two of them, it appeared, and my heart beat as I approached the door. The specimen of Perfidious Albion whom I had just been studying gave me the stronger zest for my fellow-countrymen. I could have embraced them; I could have wept on their necks. And all the time I was ...

— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 20 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... account of which surely is, that the author himself partook largely of the haughty and vindictive republican spirit which he has assigned to the character, and consequently, though perhaps unconsciously, drew the portrait with a peculiar zest. ...

— English Critical Essays - Nineteenth Century • Various

... of blood-money never can be settled. Moreover, the inflicted punishment seldom falls on the party immediately concerned; added to which, in wars of tribes, everybody helps himself to his enemy's cattle in the best way he can, and men formerly poor now suddenly become rich, which gives a zest to the extension of the contest nothing else could produce. Indeed, the poorer orders of Somali are only too glad to have a good pretext for a fight, as a means of bettering their condition, by adding ...

— What Led To The Discovery of the Source Of The Nile • John Hanning Speke

... or two men shifted their attitude from one side to the other, and all waited as children do for an absorbing story. A momentary look of satisfaction came over the face of the evangelist, and he began again with zest. ...

— Women of the Country • Gertrude Bone

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