zestful

English
WOTD – 4 December 2023

Etymology

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
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈzɛs(t)f(ʊ)l/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈzɛs(t)f(ə)l/
  • Rhymes: -ɛstfʊl
  • Hyphenation: zest‧ful

Adjective

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

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

References
  1. “zestful, adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, 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

Anagrams
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