Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Zeal

Zeal (zēl), n. [F. zèle; cf. Pg. & It. zelo, Sp. zelo, celo; from L. zelus, Gr. ζῆλος, probably akin to ζεῖν to boil. Cf. Yeast, Jealous.]

1. Passionate ardor in the pursuit of anything; eagerness in favor of a person or cause; ardent and active interest; engagedness; enthusiasm; fervor. "Ambition varnished o'er with zeal." Milton. "Zeal, the blind conductor of the will." Dryden. "Zeal's never-dying fire." Keble.

I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. Rom. x. 2.

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

2. A zealot. [Obs.] B. Jonson.

Zeal, v. i. To be zealous. [Obs. & R.] Bacon.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.