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/ɪkspˈɛkt/ Listen

verb

Expect v. t. (past & past part. expected; pres. part. expecting)

To wait for; to await. (Obs.) "Let's in, and there expect their coming."

To look for (mentally); to look forward to, as to something that is believed to be about to happen or come; to have a previous apprehension of, whether of good or evil; to look for with some confidence; to anticipate; often followed by an infinitive, sometimes by a clause (with, or without, that); as, I expect to receive wages; I expect that the troops will be defeated. "Good: I will expect you." "Expecting thy reply." "The Somersetshire or yellow regiment... was expected to arrive on the following day."

Synonyms: To anticipate; look for; await; hope. To Expect, Think, Believe, Await. Expect is a mental act and has aways a reference to the future, to some coming event; as a person expects to die, or he expects to survive. Think and believe have reference to the past and present, as well as to the future; as I think the mail has arrived; I believe he came home yesterday, that he is he is at home now. There is a not uncommon use of expect, which is a confusion of the two; as, I expect the mail has arrived; I expect he is at home. This misuse should be avoided. Await is a physical or moral act. We await that which, when it comes, will affect us personally. We expect what may, or may not, interest us personally. See Anticipate.

Expect v. t. To wait; to stay. (Obs.)

noun

Expect n. Expectation. (Obs.)

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Etymology of 'Expect'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Expect" Quotes from Famous Books

... sin is happy. But see what the eternal law establisheth. If thou apply thy mind to the better, thou needest no judge to reward thee: thou hast joined thyself to the more excellent things. If thou declinest to that which is worse, never expect any other to punish thee: thou hast put thyself in a miserable estate; as if by turns thou lookest down to the miry ground, and up to heaven, setting aside all outward causes, by the very law of sight thou seemest sometime to be in the dirt, and ...

— The Theological Tractates and The Consolation of Philosophy • Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius

... will not expect to hear that Miss Bremer, a maiden lady of forty, retains a very large share of youthful bloom; but, independently of that, she is really any thing but handsome. Her thin wrinkled physiognomy is, however, rendered agreeable by its good-humoured ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol 58, No. 357, July 1845 • Various

... but they must take good care not to break off the arrowheads when they swallow and withdraw them." Such is the origin of the dance of the kátso-yisç� n, or great plumed arrow. As they bade him good-bye, one of them said to the Navajo: "We look for you," i.e., "We expect you to return to us," an intimation to him that when he left the earth he should return to the gods, ...

— The Mountain Chant, A Navajo Ceremony • Washington Matthews

... Florence, "but they were saying it. I don't mean they were saying it together; I heard one say it one time and the other say it some other time. I think Kitty Silver was saying it about some coloured man. She proba'ly wouldn't want to marry any white man; at least I don't expect she would. She's been married to a couple of coloured men, anyhow; and she was married twice to one of 'em, and the other one died in between. Anyhow, that's what she told me. She weighed over two hunderd pounds the first time she was married, and she weighed over two hunderd-and-seventy ...

— Gentle Julia • Booth Tarkington

... smugglers found that, contrary to what one would expect, their greatest risk was not when landing the goods, but when bringing them across from the Continent. A seizure on land was, at any rate during the first half of the eighteenth century, comparatively rare if they had been able to get away from the sloops and ...

— King's Cutters and Smugglers 1700-1855 • E. Keble Chatterton

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