zest

Etymology

Borrowed from French zeste.

noun

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.
   He rolled his own cigarettes from a sack of Bull Durham, spilling flakes into his beer, which no doubt gained in zest thereby. 1959, Peter De Vries, The Tents of Wickedness, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., The Treehouse, Chapter 7, page 92
   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. 1978, Isaac Bashevis Singer, translated by Joseph Singer et al., Shosha, New York: Fawcett Crest, Part One, Chapter Five, 1, p. 99
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, 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, Liberality of disposition and conduct gives the highest zest and relish to social intercourse.
   The singers, male and female, wore blue jeans and long hair and had more zest than talent. 1962, James Baldwin, Another Country, New York: Dell, published 1963, Book Two, Chapter 2, p. 221
   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. 2008 January–February, “70 Ways to Improve Every Day of the Week”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, page 135
4. (rare) The woody, thick skin enclosing the kernel of a walnut.
   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. 2006, N. J. Nusha, On the Edge (Short Stories), Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, page 85

verb

1. (cooking) To scrape the zest from a fruit.
2. To make more zesty.
   Strains ſo artleſs tho’ we proffer, Hearts o’er flowing zest the offer. 1792, James Cobb, The Siege of Belgrade, a Comic Opera, in Three Acts, page 47