expect

English Online Dictionary. What means expect‎? What does expect mean?

English

Etymology

From Latin expectāre, infinitive form of exspectō (“look out for, await, expect”), from ex (“out”) + spectō (“look at”), frequentative of speciō (“see”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪkˈspɛkt/, /ɛkˈspɛkt/
• Hyphenation: ex‧pect
• Rhymes: -ɛkt

Verb

expect (third-person singular simple present expects, present participle expecting, simple past and past participle expected)

1. (ambitransitive) To predict or believe that something will happen

   Synonyms: anticipate, hope, look for
2. To consider obligatory or required.

   Synonyms: call for, demand

   • 1805, Nelson, Horatio via Pasco, John, signal sent at the Battle of Trafalgar:

     England expects that every man will do his duty.
3. To consider reasonably due.

   Synonyms: hope, want, wish

   .

4. (continuous aspect only, of a woman or couple) To be pregnant, to consider a baby due.
5. (obsolete, transitive) To wait for; to await.

   Synonyms: await; see also Thesaurus:wait for

   • 1825, Walter Scott, The Talisman, A. and C. Black (1868), 24-25:

     The knight fixed his eyes on the opening with breathless anxiety, and continuing to kneel in the attitude of devotion which the place and scene required, expected the consequence of these preparations.

6. (obsolete, intransitive) To wait; to stay.

   Synonym: wait

Usage notes

• This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• “expect”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “expect”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “expect”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• except