In this work, we investigate the charmless decay modes of the hidden-charm tetraquark state with strangeness, $Z_{cs}(3985)$, assuming it to be an $S$-wave hadronic molecule of $D_s^{*-}{D}^0$ and $D_s^{-}{D}^{*0}$ with quantum numbers $I(J^P)=\frac{1}{2}(1^{+})$. Using an effective Lagrangian approach, we calculate the decay amplitudes for $Z_{cs}\to 𝒫𝒱$ (where $𝒫$ and $𝒱$ denote light pseudoscalar and vector mesons, respectively) via triangle loop diagrams. We use the experimental upper limit on $Z_c(3900)\to \pi \omega$ to constrain the cutoff parameter for both the dipole and tripole form factors. Numerical results from the dipole form factor show that the branching ratios for $Z_{cs}\to \pi K^{*}$ can reach up to the order of ${10}^{-2}$, which is of the same order of magnitude as the hidden charm decay modes and may be detected in future measurements. The branching ratios from tripole form factor are not consistent with those from the dipole form factor, indicating a certain degree of model dependence in the present work. The relative ratios of the branching ratios for different decay channels are found to be almost independent of the cutoff parameter. However, some ratios are highly dependent on the choice of the dipole or tripole form factor. The branching ratio of $Z_{cs}\to \eta K^{*}$ is found to be highly sensitive to the $\eta$-${\eta }^{\prime }$ mixing angle, while that for $Z_{cs}\to {\eta }^{\prime }{K}^{*}$ is almost independent of the mixing angle, making it a clean channel for future experimental measurements.