Wiktionary

zestful

English edit

WOTD – 4 December 2023

Etymology edit

From zest +‎ -ful (suffix forming adjectives from nouns, with the sense of being full of, tending to, or thoroughly possessing the quality expressed by the noun).[1][2]

Pronunciation edit

Adjective edit

zestful (comparative more zestful, superlative most zestful)

  1. Full of zest.
    Antonyms: unzestful, zestless
    1. Of food, or an aroma or flavour: pleasantly piquant, pungent, or spicy; zesty.
    2. (figurative) Eager, enthusiastic.
      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:enthusiastic
      • 1933 September, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Versailles: Seed Bed of Disasters”, in The Shape of Things to Come, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, 1st book (Today and Tomorrow: The Age of Frustration Dawns), page 86:
        [T]here appeared a narrowly patriotic government, which presently developed into an aggressive, vindictive and pitiless dictatorship, and set itself at once to the zestful persecution of the unfortunate ethnic minorities (about a third of the entire population) caught in the net of its all too ample boundaries.
      • 1968, Donald Barthelme, “The Dolt”, in Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →OCLC, page 66:
        [T]he former priest, by now habituated to military life, and even zestful for it, enlisted under the new young king, with the rank of captain.
    3. (figurative) Having a spirited love of life; ebullient, zesty.
      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:active
      • 1957, Arthur W[illiam] Upfield, “Balancing Results”, in Bony Buys a Woman, Stockholm, Sweden: DigiCat, Storytel, published 2022:
        Debonair youth! The spurs, the wide felt hat, the open shirt, the belt holding the array of small pouches, including a holstered revolver, the delight in the long stock-whip having a bright green silk cracker to produce loud reports, ranging from slow rifle fire to the rat-tat-tat of a machine-gun, all told the story of zestful youth.

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

of food, or an aroma or flavour: pleasantly piquant, pungent, or spicy — see zesty
eager, enthusiastic — see eager,‎ enthusiastic

References edit

  1. ^ “zestful, adj.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
  2. ^ “zestful, adj.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN.

Further reading edit

Anagrams edit

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