| Library / English Dictionary |
ZEALOUS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Marked by active interest and enthusiasm
Example:
an avid sports fan
Synonyms:
avid; zealous
Classified under:
Similar:
enthusiastic (having or showing great excitement and interest)
Derivation:
zeal (excessive fervor to do something or accomplish some end)
zeal (a feeling of strong eagerness (usually in favor of a person or cause))
Context examples:
An excellent, good-hearted fellow, I assure you; a very active, zealous officer too, which is more than you would think for, perhaps, for that soft sort of manner does not do him justice.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Every thing that the most zealous affection, the most solicitous care could do to render her comfortable, was the office of each watchful companion, and each found their reward in her bodily ease, and her calmness of spirits.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
And he desired to know, Whether such zealous gentlemen could have any views of refunding themselves for the charges and trouble they were at by sacrificing the public good to the designs of a weak and vicious prince, in conjunction with a corrupted ministry?
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I was sure St. John Rivers—pure-lived, conscientious, zealous as he was—had not yet found that peace of God which passeth all understanding: he had no more found it, I thought, than had I with my concealed and racking regrets for my broken idol and lost elysium—regrets to which I have latterly avoided referring, but which possessed me and tyrannised over me ruthlessly.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
