expect

present singular third person expects · participle present expecting · participle past expected · past expected · first person past singular expected · archaic present second person singular expectest · past second person singular expected · archaic past second person singular expectedst · present singular third person expects · archaic present singular third person expecteth · past singular third person expected · past plural expected · past subjunctive expected · participle present expecting · participle past expected

1. ambitransitiveTo predict or believe that something will happen

   when you least expect it

   5 more examples

   I expect to be able to walk again after getting over my broken leg.

   The hostage is expected to be released later today.

   I expect it'll rain this weekend, but I hope it won't.

   I did not expect you'd come before I asked you to, but do expect you to apologize for it.

   “[…] They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms: anticipate, hope, look for, bargain for

2. To consider obligatory or required.

   England expects that every man will do his duty.

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

   1 more example

   I was born and immediately thrown into a society that makes its own rules, standards, and expectations. I am expected to behave. I am expected to deliver. I am expected to live up to the contrived standards of the society.

   2015, Sajith Buvi, I Am 7.5 Billion Human, page 49

   Synonyms: call for, demand

3. To consider reasonably due.

   How am I expected to reach the next level?

   2 more examples

   My parents expected too much of me when I was in college.

   You are expected to get the task done by the end of next week.

   Synonyms: hope, want, wish

4. continuous aspect onlyTo be pregnant, to consider a baby due.

   We are expecting our third in June.

   1 more example

   “You are pregnant?” he asked with shock in his voice. “Yes, Justin, I am expecting a child,”

   2011, Eva Fischer-Dixon, The Bestseller

5. obsoletetransitiveTo wait for; to await.

   Let's in, and there expect their coming.

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]

   2 more examples

   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.

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

   You keep on making me expect you again and again. Only the other day, when I thought you on the point of arriving I was suddenly put off by you till Quintilis (July).

   1920, Cicero, translated by Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh, The Letters of Cicero: The Whole Extant Correspondence in Chronological Order, volume 1 (hardcover), London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., page 11

   Synonyms: await, abide, attend, await, bide, hold up, keep, remain

6. intransitiveobsoleteTo wait; to stay.

   I will 'expect until my change in death, / And answer at Thy call

   1636, G[eorge] S[andys], “(please specify the page)”, in A Paraphrase upon the Psalmes of David. And upon the Hymnes Dispersed throughout the Old and New Testaments, London: [Andrew Hebb […]], →OCLC

   Synonyms: wait