How to use zest in a sentence

32 example sentences · noun, verb

Zest means the outer skin of a citrus fruit, used as a flavouring or garnish. Example: “The orange zest gives the strong flavor in this dish.”

Examples of zest by meaning

nounThe outer skin of a citrus fruit, used as a flavouring or garnish.

The orange zest gives the strong flavor in this dish.

nounGeneral 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
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

nounEnthusiasm; keen enjoyment; exciting and interesting; relish or gusto; a state of being zesty.

Auntie Mame had a real zest for life.
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.1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 9, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Gutenberg edition, [Florence, Italy]: [ […] Tipografia Giuntina...
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

nounThe 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

More sentences with zest

A good way to doctor up a basic cake mix is by adding lemon zest, or coffee.From the entry doctor up
Crushed red pepper flakes add zest to pizza.From the entry red pepper
I have more zest than a boat pushing the sea aside, because it pushes it evenly.2009, Tomaž Šalamun, translated by Brian Henry, “[Three poems] The Loire Delta”, in Jacket, number 37, archived from the original on 25…. From the entry spasmodicality
Yet, though the piece is preposterous hokum, the show is put across with enormous zest.2007 September 14, Michael Billington, “Bad Girls, the musical”, in The Guardian. From the entry put across
While chicken is smoking, combine zest, hoisin, pomegranate molasses and sriracha in a small bowl.2007 January 24, “Recipe: Tea-Smoked Chicken Thighs With Pomegranate Glaze”, in The New York Times. From the entry sriracha
She felt no interest in the general briskness and zest of the crowds.1915 October, Willa Sibert Cather, chapter V, in The Song of the Lark, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company […], →OCLC…. From the entry briskness
In a medium bowl, mix together the leeks, lemon zest, the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt, and the remaining 1½ tablespoons oil.2022, Melissa Clark, Dinner in One, →ISBN. From the entry mix
But, although they don't fail on purpose, it's reasonable to expect them to compete with honour, zest and courage.2014 May 25, Dan Lucas, Daniel Harris, “England v Sri Lanka: second ODI – as it happened”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian…. From the entry horrificity
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. From the entry red
The engine's warbling rortiness promises zest - duly delivered as you run up through the gears with unexpected pace.2007 March 28, Richard Bremner, “On the Road”, in Management Today, retrieved 06 Jun 2017. From the entry rortiness
In the original Italian recipe, candied lemon zest is used, but I find this a bit fruitcaky for modern tastes.2004, Orlando Murrin, No Cook Cookbook: Over 200 Simple Recipes and Ideas for Mouthwatering Meals Without Cooking, Quadrille, →ISBN, page 75. From the entry fruitcaky
Transfer the juice and the segments to the food processor or blender, and puree them with the uncandied zest.1990, The Time-life book of elegant everyday cooking, page 277. From the entry uncandied
Hood returned to London looking and feeling well and ready to take up his "bookery" again with renewed zest.1907, Thomas Hood: His Life and Times - Page 364. From the entry bookery
For the icing, mix the icing sugar with the lemon zest and enough water to make a glossy icing with a thick, pourable consistency.2022 June 9, Paul Hollywood, BAKE: My Best Ever Recipes for the Classics, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN. From the entry chouxnut
To make the mirliton, in a bowl, break the eggs, add both the sugars, the double cream, almond meal, lemon zest and melted butter.2012, Cooking with the World's Best, Murdoch Books Pty Limited. From the entry mirliton
This territory was Nevada and California, where he prospected for silver without luck and practiced scurrilous journalism and general drunkardry with zest.2008 July 14, Roy Blount Jr., “America’s Original Superstar”, in Time, volume 172, number 2, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, page 51…. From the entry drunkardry
How would he find the meat and cheese, the egg that held it together, the herbs and seasoning that gave it zest?1984, R. A. Scotti, The Kiss of Judas, New York, N.Y.: Fawcett Crest, Ballantine Books, published 1986, →ISBN, page 155. From the entry cannellone
They exude a naive zest: coatings of detail, poured like thick chocolate sauce over a mingy scoop of vanilla ice, distract attention, criticism, distrust.1973 June 9, Peter Preston, “Frederick Forsyth interview: ‘I’ve always been a loner’ – archive, 1973”, in The Guardian, London: Guardian…. From the entry ice
Our Franks in Blankets—an outdoor treat loaded with small-fry appeal—owe their unusual zest to pickle-sweet, tomato-saucy Heinz Hamburger Relish . . .1960 June, “3 easy new ideas to make cook-outs more fun”, in Farm Journal, volume LXXXIV, number 6, Philadelphia, Pa.: Farm Journal Inc.…. From the entry tomato-saucy
Attractive, career oriented LF 30 with sense of humor and zest for life, seeks intelligent, warm, mature but fun-loving LF for sharing all that life has to offer.1986 April 5, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, page 11. From the entry lf
Yet at ten years (a good age for it today) it has a haunting combination of foursquare breadth and depth with some delicate, intriguing, lemony zest.1983, Hugh Johnson, Hugh Johnson's modern encyclopedia of wine. From the entry foursquare
Some experimental spirits could not resist the diversion of throwing Varick and his former wife together, and there were those who thought he found a zest in the propinquity.1904, Edith Wharton, The Other Two. From the entry propinquity
She scoops a grassy, barely sweet green-tea sorbet onto white chocolate ganache, and garnishes it with coin-size meringues that break easily, then strings syrupy, candied yuzu zest across it all.2016 June 27, Tejal Rao, “Making Mochi, a Japanese Treat That’s All About Texture”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry yuzu
It should be said to the credit of the Aryasamaj that its followers show for what they believe the earnestness and zest which characterized the Aryans of the Vedic times.2013, P T Raju, The Philosophical Traditions of India, Routledge, →ISBN, page 227. From the entry Aryasamaj

Meaning of zest

noun The outer skin of a citrus fruit, used as a flavouring or garnish.
noun General vibrance of flavour.
noun Enthusiasm; keen enjoyment; exciting and interesting; relish or gusto; a state of being zesty.

Full definition of zest

Questions about zest in a sentence

How do you use zest in a sentence?: Zest is used as a noun and verb. For example: “The orange zest gives the strong flavor in this dish.”
What is a short sentence with zest?: “Auntie Mame had a real zest for life.”
What does zest mean?: Zest means the outer skin of a citrus fruit, used as a flavouring or garnish.

Adapted from Wiktionary: zest (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use zest in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/zest. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.