| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| trust |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  tr st |
| NOUN: | 1. Firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing. 2. Custody; care. 3. Something committed into the care of another; charge. 4a. The condition and resulting obligation of having confidence placed in one: violated a public trust. b. One in which confidence is placed. 5. Reliance on something in the future; hope. 6. Reliance on the intention and ability of a purchaser to pay in the future; credit. 7. Law a. A legal title to property held by one party for the benefit of another. b. The confidence reposed in a trustee when giving the trustee legal title to property to administer for another, together with the trustee's obligation regarding that property and the beneficiary. c. The property so held. 8. A combination of firms or corporations for the purpose of reducing competition and controlling prices throughout a business or an industry. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: trust·ed, trust·ing, trusts
| | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To have or place reliance; depend: Trust in the Lord. Trust to destiny. 2. To be confident; hope. 3. To sell on credit. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To have or place confidence in; depend on. 2. To expect with assurance; assume: I trust that you will be on time. 3. To believe: I trust what you say. 4. To place in the care of another; entrust. 5. To grant discretion to confidently: Can I trust them with the boat? 6. To extend credit to. | | IDIOM: | in trust In the possession or care of a trustee. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English truste, perhaps from Old Norse traust, confidence. See deru- in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | trust er —NOUN
| | SYNONYMS: | trust, faith, confidence, reliance, dependence These nouns denote a feeling of certainty that a person or thing will not fail. Trust implies depth and assurance of feeling that is often based on inconclusive evidence: The mayor vowed to justify the trust the electorate had placed in him. Faith connotes unquestioning, often emotionally charged belief: “Often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true” (William James). Confidence, frequently implies stronger grounds for assurance: “Confidence is a plant of slow growth in an aged bosom: youth is the season of credulity” (William Pitt). Reliance connotes a confident and trustful commitment to another: “What reliance could they place on the protection of a prince so recently their enemy?” (William Hickling Prescott). Dependence suggests reliance on another to whom one is often subordinate: “When I had once called him in, I could not subsist without Dependence on him” (Richard Steele).See also synonyms at care, rely.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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