trust

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
trust/trʌst/

▶noun

• 1 firm belief in someone or something.

  ■ acceptance of the truth of a statement without evidence or investigation.

• 2 the state of being responsible for someone or something: a man in a position of trust.

• 3 Law an arrangement whereby a person (a trustee) holds property as its nominal owner for the good of one or more beneficiaries.

  ■ a body of trustees.

  ■ an organization managed by trustees.

• 4 chiefly N. Amer. a large company that has or attempts to gain monopolistic control of a market.

• 5 W. Indian or archaic commercial credit.

• 6 archaic a hope or expectation.

▶verb

• 1 believe in the reliability, truth, or ability of.

  ■ (trust someone with) have the confidence to allow someone to have, use, or look after.

  ■ (trust someone/thing to) commit someone or something to the safe keeping of.

  ■ (trust to) place reliance on (luck, fate, etc.).

• 2 hope or expect (used as a polite formula): I trust that you have enjoyed this book.

• 3 archaic allow credit to.

– phrases
trust someone to —— it is characteristic or predictable for someone to act in the specified way.

– derivatives
trustable adjective,
trusted adjective,
truster noun.

– origin ME: from ON traust, from traustr ‘strong’; the verb from ON treysta.