zestful
AmericanOther Word Forms
- zestfully adverb
- zestfulness noun
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.
At 40, Lansbury stormed the New York stage in 1966 as the zestful, eccentric star of “Mame,” a part she almost didn’t get because producers perceived her as “that lady who plays everybody’s mother.”
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 11, 2022
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
But with Rouvali softening the orchestra into intimacy, she brought characterful wit and zestful German to “Ich wollt ein Sträusslein binden” and “Säus’le, liebe Myrte!” and Zerbinetta-esque dexterity to “Amor.”
From New York Times • Feb. 18, 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
It darted into zestful, exuberant maneuverings, remarkably like a dog dashing madly here and there in pure high spirits.
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.
