zest

Borrowed from French zeste.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /zɛst/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛst

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^[1], Boston: Little, Brown & Co., The Treehouse, Chapter 7, page 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, Isaac Bashevis Singer, translated by Joseph Singer et al., Shosha‎^[2], 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,^[3]

     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,^[4]

     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, 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[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 9, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Gutenberg edition, [Florence, Italy]: [ […] Tipografia Giuntina, […]], →OCLC; republished as Lady Chatterley’s Lover (eBook no. 0100181h.html)‎^[5], Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, August 2011, archived from the original on 11 November 2020:

     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^[6], New York: Dell, published 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, 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, page 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.

5. (slang, LGBTQ, derogatory) State of being effeminate or a flamboyant homosexual.

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

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.

• zester

• Tsez

From obsolete zeste (“membrane around walnut kernel”), from Middle French zec (“object of no importance”), probably of imitative origin expressing the idea of smallness or triviality. Probably influenced by another onomatopoeia, Middle French zeste (“sound of a hit or blow”).

• IPA^(key): /zɛst/

• Audio:

  (file)

zest m (plural zests)

1. zest (of a fruit)

• “zest”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.

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

From English zest

zest c

1. zest; the outer skin of a citrus fruit