zestful

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English

Etymology

zest +‎ -ful

Adjective

zestful (comparative more zestful, superlative most zestful)

  1. Having a spirited love of life; ebullient.
    • 1957, Arthur Upfield, Bony Buys a Woman, London: Heinemann, 1967, Chapter 13, p. 117,[1]
      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.
  2. Eager, enthusiastic.
    • 1933, H. G. Wells, The Shape of Things to Come, London: Hutchinson & Co., 1935, Book 1, § 10, p. 77,[2]
      [] there 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 []
    • 1968, Donald Barthelme, “The Dolt” in Sixty Stories, New York: Dutton, 1982, p. 94,[3]
      [] the former priest, by now habituated to military life, and even zestful for it, enlisted under the new young king, with the rank of captain.

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