ZEALOUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does zealous mean? 

• ZEALOUS (adjective)
  The adjective ZEALOUS has 1 sense:

1. marked by active interest and enthusiasm

  Familiarity information: ZEALOUS used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ZEALOUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Marked by active interest and enthusiasm

Synonyms:

avid; zealous

Context example:

an avid sports fan

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 

Your police must indeed be zealous men and clever—oh, so clever!—in reading the heart, that they trouble themselves in such matter.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

There is an excellent archway down yonder in case a too zealous policeman should intrude.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Nothing had come of her zealous intervention; nor could I infer, from what he told me, that any clue had been obtained, for a moment, to Emily's fate.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Lady Russell was most anxiously zealous on the subject, and gave it much serious consideration.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

He predicted the same fate to attraction, whereof the present learned are such zealous asserters.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He has served the Colonel for five years as jockey and for seven as trainer, and has always shown himself to be a zealous and honest servant.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Perhaps I shall get the credit also at some distant day, when I permit my zealous historian to lay out his foolscap once more—eh, Watson?

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Marianne's eagerness to be gone declared her dependence on finding him there; and Elinor was resolved not only upon gaining every new light as to his character which her own observation or the intelligence of others could give her, but likewise upon watching his behaviour to her sister with such zealous attention, as to ascertain what he was and what he meant, before many meetings had taken place.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Mrs. Norris was most zealous in promoting the match, by every suggestion and contrivance likely to enhance its desirableness to either party; and, among other means, by seeking an intimacy with the gentleman's mother, who at present lived with him, and to whom she even forced Lady Bertram to go through ten miles of indifferent road to pay a morning visit.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Zealous in his ministerial labours, blameless in his life and habits, he yet did not appear to enjoy that mental serenity, that inward content, which should be the reward of every sincere Christian and practical philanthropist.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)