[f. ZEST sb.1]
1. trans. To flavor with ‘zest’; to add a relish to; to give a piquant quality to; also fig.
1704. Cibber, Careless Husb., III. 56. My Lord, when my Wine’s Right I never care it shou’d be Zested.
1709. Mrs. Manley, Secret Mem. (1720), IV. Ded. p. vii. Heaven is sometimes pleased with Bitterness to Zest the Bowl of Bliss!
1737. J. Hervey, Mem. Reign Geo. II. (1848), II. xxx. 288. Many more expressions not quite so strongly zested, though but few degrees weaker.
1760. Goldsm., Ess., Misc. Wks. 1837, I. 327. Hundreds sunk to the bottom by one broadside, furnish out the topic of the day, and zest his coffee.
1862. Meredith, Marian, ii. Ye who zest the turtle’s nest With the eagle’s eyrie.
1871. H. Marshall, For very Life, I. i. One autumn morning, zested with a sharp frosty feeling.
† 2. [after F. zester.] (See quot.) Obs.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), To Zest an Orange or Lemon, (among Confectioners) is to cut the Peel from top to bottom into small Slips, as thin as it can possibly be done.
Hence Zested ppl. a.
1769. Goldsm., Rom. Hist., II. 74. One circumstance that might well … teach mankind to relish the beverage of virtue … above their most zested enjoyments.
1801. Lusignan, III. 13. The most zested enjoyments of vice.
