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
Last week, I called and listened to Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee,” then called back and heard a zestful reading of a New York Times excerpt about the Great Seattle Fire, published in 1889.
From Seattle Times • Jul. 27, 2020
A zestful 18-year-old’s experience told, thanks in part to his lifelong writing block, with the dazzling style of a far older man.
From New York Times • Mar. 12, 2020
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
An excellent hotel caters to the guests who seek either quiet and rest or zestful games.
From Legends of the Skyline Drive and the Great Valley of Virginia by Northington, Etta Belle Walker
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.
