ZEAL, noun [Gr., Latin ] Passionate ardor in the pursuit of any thing. In general, zeal is an eagerness of desire to accomplish or obtain some object, and it may be manifested either in favor of any person or thing, or in opposition to it, and in a good or bad cause.

ZEAL, the blind conductor of the will.

They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. Romans 10:2.

A zeal for liberty is sometimes an eagerness to subvert, with little care what shall be established.

ZEALOT, noun Zelot. One who engages warmly in any cause, and pursues his object with earnestness and ardor. It is generally used in dispraise, or applied to one whose ardor in intemperate and censurable. The fury of zealots was one cause of the destruction of Jerusalem.

ZEALOTICAL, adjective Ardently zealous. [Little used.]

ZEALOUS, adjective Zelus. Warmly engaged or ardent in the pursuit of an object.

Being thus saved himself, he may be zealous in the salvation of souls.

ZEALOUSLY, adverb Zelusly. With passionate ardor; with eagerness.

It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing. Galatians 4:17.

ZEALOUSNESS, noun Zelusness. The quality of being zealous; zeal.

ZEBRA, noun An animal of the genus Equus, beautifully marked with stripes; a native of Africa.

ZEBU, noun A variety of the common ox, with a hump on the shoulders. It is found in the East Indies and resembles the bos Indicus, or Indian ox, but is very small, being sometimes little larger than a dog.

ZECHIN, noun A Venetian gold coin; usually written sequin, which see. If named from Zecha, the place where minted, this is the correct orthography.

ZEDOARY, noun A medicinal root, belonging to a plant growing in the East Indies, whose leaves resemble those of ginger, only they are longer and broader. It comes in oblong pieces, about the thickness of the little finger, and two or three inches in length. It is a warm stomachic.

ZEINE, noun A substance of a yellowish color, soft, insipid, and elastic, procured from the seeds of the Zea Mays or Indian corn.

ZEMINDAR, noun [from zem, zemin, land.] In India, a feudatory or landholder who governs a district of country and collects taxes.

ZEMINDARY, noun The jurisdiction of a zemindar.

ZEND, noun A language that formerly prevailed in Persia.

ZENDAVESTA, noun Among the Persees, a sacred book ascribed to Zoroaster, and reverenced as a bible, or sole rule of faith and practice. It is often called Zend, by contraction.

ZENITH, noun That point in the visible celestial hemisphere, which is vertical to the spectator, and from which a direct perpendicular line passing through the spectator, and extended, would proceed to the center of the earth. It is opposed to nadir.

ZEOLITE, noun [Gr., to boil, to foam; stone.] A mineral, so named by Cronstedt from its intumescence before the blowpipe. Many substances have been confounded under this name, particularly such as are fusible by the blowpipe without addition, and exhibit a phosphoric brilliancy at the moment of fusion. Hauy makes two species of zeolite which he calls mesotype and stilbite. Werner makes four subspecies, which he calls maly zeolite fibrous zeolite radiated zeolite and foliated zeolite He makes zeolite a generic name, and Jameson, who adopts this theory, arranges in this family prehnite, zeolite apophyllite, cubicite, called by Hauy analcime, chabasite, cross-stone, laumonite, dipyre, natrolite, and wavellite. zeolite commonly occurs in a four sided prism, terminated by a four sided pyramid; often in small fibrous masses.

ZEOLITIC, adjective Pertaining to zeolite; consisting of zeolite, or resembling it.

ZEOLITIFORM, adjective Having the form of zeolite.

ZEPHYR, noun [Latin , Gr.] The west wind; and peotically, any soft, mild, gentle breeze. The poets personify Zephyrus, and make him the most mild and gentle of all the sylvan deities.

Mild as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes.

ZERDA, noun An animal of the canine genus, found in the desert of Zaara, beyond mount Atlas. It is about ten inches in length, with a pointed nose, long whiskers, large black vivid eyes, and remarkably swift of foot. Its color is a yellowish pale brown.

ZERO, noun Cipher; nothing. The point of a thermometer from which it is graduated. zero in the thermometers of Celsius and Reaumur, is at the point at which water congeals. The zero of Fahrenheits thermometer is fixed at the point at which the mercury stands when immersed in a mixture of snow and common salt. In Wedgewoods pyrometer, the zero corresponds with 1077 degrees on Fahrenheits scale.

ZEST, noun

1. A piece of orange or lemon peel, used to give flavor to liquor; or the fine thin oil that spurts out of it when squeezed; also, the woody thick skin quartering the kernel of a walnut.

2. Relish; something that gives a pleasant taste; or the taste itself.

ZEST, verb transitive

1. To give a relish or flavor to; to highten taste or relish.

2. To cut the peel of an orange or lemon from top to bottom into thin slips; or to squeeze the peel over the surface of any thing.

ZETA, noun

1. A Greek letter.

2. A little closet or chamber, with pipes running along the walls, to convey into it fresh air, or warm vapor from below.

ZETETIC, adjective [Gr., to seek.] That seeks; that proceeds by inquiry. The zetetic method in mathematics, is that used in investigation, or the solution of problems.

ZEUGMA, noun [Gr., to join. See Yoke.] A figure in grammar by which an adjective or verb which agrees with a nearer word, is by way of supplement, referred to another more remote. Thus in Virgil, Hicillius arma, hic currus fuit; where fuit, which agrees directly with currus, is referred also to arma.