The AI-powered English dictionary
countable and uncountable, plural zeals
The fervour or tireless devotion for a person, cause, or ideal and determination in its furtherance; diligent enthusiasm; powerful interest. quotations examples
I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Romans 10:2
Zeal, the blind conductor of the will
1687, [John Dryden], “The Third Part”, in The Hind and the Panther. A Poem, in Three Parts, 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], page 96
[…] the highest zeal in religion and the deepest hypocrisy, so far from being inconsistent, are often or commonly united in the same individual character.
1779, David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, part 12, pages 143–144
[He] would begin admiring her drawings with so much zeal and so little knowledge as seemed terribly like a would-be lover,
1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter 14, in Emma: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I, II or III), London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, page 250
The stockman’s zeal for eliminating the coyote has resulted in plagues of field mice, which the coyote formerly controlled.
1962, Rachel Carson, chapter 15, in Silent Spring, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 248
(obsolete) A person who exhibits such fervour or tireless devotion. quotations
[…] like a malicious purblinde zeale as thou art!
1614, Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, London: Robert Allot, act v, scene 5, page 85
[…] there are questionlesse both in Greeke, Roman and Africa Churches, solemnities, and ceremonies, whereof the wiser zeales doe make a Christian use, and stand condemned by us;
1642, Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, London: Andrew Crooke, page 5
The collective noun for a group of zebras. quotations examples
A zeal of zebras confuses predators. Each zebra has a different set of stripes.
2012, Alex Kuskowski, Zeal of Zebras: Animal Groups on an African Safari, page 8