zest

zest

See also: žest

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French zeste.[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zɛst/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛst

Noun

zest (countable and uncountable, plural zests)

1. The outer skin of a citrus fruit, used as a flavouring or garnish.

   The orange zest gives the strong flavor in this dish.

2. General vibrance of flavour.

   I add zest to the meat by rubbing it with a spice mixture before grilling.

   • 1959, Peter De Vries, The Tents of Wickedness, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., “The Treehouse,” Chapter 7, p. 92,

     He rolled his own cigarettes from a sack of Bull Durham, spilling flakes into his beer, which no doubt gained in zest thereby.

   • 1978, Joseph Singer et al. (translators), Shosha by Isaac Bashevis Singer, 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-sour zest as Bashele.

3. (by extension) Enthusiasm; keen enjoyment; relish; gusto.

   Auntie Mame had a real zest for life.

   • 1728, Edward Young, Love of Fame, the Universal Passion, Satire II in The Works of the Reverend Edward Young, London: P. Brown, H. Hill & S. Payne, 1765, Volume I, p. 85,

     Almighty vanity! to thee they owe

     Their zest of pleasure, and their balm 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,

     Liberality of disposition and conduct gives the highest zest and relish to social intercourse.

   • 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXXIV, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], OCLC 1000392275, page 139:

     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 new zest, as the son of his father.

   • 1928, D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, New York: Barnes & Noble, 1995, Chapter 9, p. 101,

     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, flamey zest in all their affairs, it was wonderful, if just a trifle humiliating to listen to her.

   • 1962, James Baldwin, Another Country, New York: Dell, 1963, Book Two, Chapter 2, p. 221,

     The singers, male and female, wore blue jeans and long hair and had more zest than talent.

   • 2008 January–February, “70 Ways to Improve Every Day of the Week”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, ISSN 1054-4836, page 135:

     59 sneak 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 add zest even to a bad movie.

4. (rare) The woody, thick skin enclosing the kernel of a walnut.
   • 2006, N. J. Nusha, On the Edge (Short Stories), Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, p. 85,

     The green zest of walnuts was used by the women to shine their teeth and it also gave a beautiful rust colour to their lips.

Synonyms

• (enthusiasm): gusto, relish
• (general vibrance of flavour): punch, spice, tang, zing

Derived terms

Terms derived from zest (noun)

• zestful
• zestfully
• zestily
• zestiness
• zestless
• zestlessly
• zestlessness
• zesty

 

Translations

enthusiasm

Bulgarian: охота (bg) f (ohota), склонност (bg) f (sklonnost) Chinese: Mandarin: 熱心／热心 (zh) (rèxīn) Finnish: into (fi), innostus (fi) French: entrain (fr) m Galician: entusiasmo (gl) m, azo m Georgian: ენთუზიაზმი (entuziazmi), გატაცება (gaṭaceba), ინტერესი (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) Maori: wana, whiwhita Norwegian: entusiasme m, begeistring m Polish: entuzjazm (pl) m, bigiel (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)

outer skin of citrus

Bulgarian: цитрусова кора f (citrusova kora) Catalan: pela (ca) f Dutch: geraspte citrusschil f Finnish: ulkokuori (with fruit specified or sitrushedelmän (“of citrus fruit”)), kuori (fi) (with fruit specified or sitrushedelmän (“of citrus fruit”)) French: zeste (fr) m Galician: casca (gl) f German: (2) Würze (de) f, Zeste (de) f Hungarian: héj (hu) Italian: buccia (it) m, scorza (it) f Norwegian: ytterskall n, zest m Russian: це́дра (ru) f (cédra) Slovak: kôra (sk) f, šupa f Spanish: ralladura f, cáscara (es) f Swedish: zest (sv) c Ukrainian: цедра (uk) f (cedra)

Verb

zest (third-person singular simple present zests, present participle zesting, simple past and past participle zested)

1. (cooking) To scrape the zest from a fruit.
2. To make more zesty.
   • 1792, James Cobb, The Siege of Belgrade, a Comic Opera, in Three Acts, page 47:

     Strains ſo artleſs tho’ we proffer,
     Hearts o’er flowing zest the offer.

Derived terms

• zester

References

1. “zest, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Anagrams

• Tsez

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zɛst/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

zest m (plural zests)

1. zest (of a fruit)

Further reading

• “zest”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Swedish

Noun

zest c

1. zest; the outer skin of a citrus fruit

Declension

Declension of zest
	Uncountable
	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	zest	zesten	—	—
Genitive	zests	zestens	—	—