zestful
AmericanOther Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of zestful
Explanation
If someone is zestful, they're energetic and enthusiastic. Your zestful performance on the soccer field should earn you the title of Most Valuable Player! The noun zest has two meanings: the sour outer layer of peel on a citrus fruit or a passionate enthusiasm. The adjective zestful is used only in the second, more figurative way, to describe someone with true zeal or verve. A zestful response to an essay question will definitely get your teacher's attention, and a zestful audition may very well win you the role of Macbeth in your school's upcoming production.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
That’s all because we say that most of the interesting stuff is done by volunteerism and entrepreneurship and will, zestful building, not by the coercive powers of the state.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 7, 2026
Offered in four sophisticated colors — oak, burgundy, olive and black — this handbag with a zestful silhouette and buttery lambskin design is sure to be a crowd pleaser.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 18, 2023
Maggy Hurchalla, 81, a zestful and adventuresome environmentalist who carved a reputation independent from her trailblazing sister, Janet Reno, the first female U.S. attorney general, died Feb. 19 at her home in Stuart, Florida.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 11, 2022
It follows on the awkwardly zestful Biennial of 2017, which, having been assembled, by and large, before the 2016 national election, seemed pointed toward a future that was abruptly kaput.
From The New Yorker • May 20, 2019
There was no possible way to explain the fact, but a feeling of pleasure, of zestful stirring, was somehow expressed by the three machines which had been linked together into a cooperating group.
From The Machine That Saved The World by Leinster, Murray
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
