EXPECT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does expect mean? 

• EXPECT (verb)
  The verb EXPECT has 6 senses:

1. regard something as probable or likely

2. consider obligatory; request and expect

3. look forward to the probable occurrence of

4. consider reasonable or due

5. look forward to the birth of a child

6. be pregnant with

  Familiarity information: EXPECT used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXPECT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they expect    ... he / she / it expects   
Past simple: expected   
Past participle: expected   
-ing form: expecting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Regard something as probable or likely

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

anticipate; expect

Context example:

The meteorologists are expecting rain for tomorrow

Hypernyms (to "expect" is one way to...):

evaluate; judge; pass judgment (form a critical opinion of)

Verb group:

await; expect; look; wait (look forward to the probable occurrence of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "expect"):

guess; imagine; opine; reckon; suppose; think (expect, believe, or suppose)

assume; presume; take for granted (take to be the case or to be true; accept without verification or proof)

conjecture; hypothecate; hypothesise; hypothesize; speculate; suppose; theorise; theorize (to believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds)

believe; trust (be confident about something)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE
Somebody ----s to INFINITIVE

Sentence example:

They expect to move

Derivation:

expectant (marked by eager anticipation)

expectation (belief about (or mental picture of) the future)

expectation (the feeling that something is about to happen)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Consider obligatory; request and expect

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

ask; expect; require

Context example:

I expect my students to arrive in time for their lessons

Hypernyms (to "expect" is one way to...):

demand (request urgently and forcefully)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "expect"):

call (require the presentation of for redemption before maturation)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something from somebody
Somebody ----s somebody to INFINITIVE

Sentence example:

They expect him to write the letter

Derivation:

expectation (belief about (or mental picture of) the future)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Look forward to the probable occurrence of

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

await; expect; look; wait

Context example:

he is waiting to be drafted

Verb group:

anticipate; expect (regard something as probable or likely)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "expect"):

expect (look forward to the birth of a child)

look forward (expect or hope for)

look to (turn one's interests or expectations towards)

hang on; hold on; hold the line (hold the phone line open)

anticipate; look for; look to (be excited or anxious about)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s VERB-ing

Derivation:

expectancy (something expected (as on the basis of a norm))

expectant (marked by eager anticipation)

expectation (anticipating with confidence of fulfillment)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Consider reasonable or due

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Context example:

I'm expecting a full explanation as to why these files were destroyed

Hypernyms (to "expect" is one way to...):

consider; reckon; regard; see; view (deem to be)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

expectation (belief about (or mental picture of) the future)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Look forward to the birth of a child

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Context example:

She is expecting in March

Hypernyms (to "expect" is one way to...):

await; expect; look; wait (look forward to the probable occurrence of)

Verb group:

bear; carry; expect; gestate; have a bun in the oven (be pregnant with)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

expectant (in an advanced stage of pregnancy)

expectation (anticipating with confidence of fulfillment)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Be pregnant with

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

bear; carry; expect; gestate; have a bun in the oven

Context example:

I am carrying his child

Hypernyms (to "expect" is one way to...):

bear; birth; deliver; give birth; have (cause to be born)

"Expect" entails doing...:

conceive (become pregnant; undergo conception)

Verb group:

bear; birth; deliver; give birth; have (cause to be born)

expect (look forward to the birth of a child)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

expectant (in an advanced stage of pregnancy)

expectation (the feeling that something is about to happen)

 Context examples 

I shall come every day, Father, and expect to keep my old place in all your hearts, though I am married.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

As said, Uranus rules high tech and will be unruly, so I don’t expect you would find anyone through a dating app—Uranus rules apps and is too unpredictable this month.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

"You keep a diary of these events, and you expect eventually to publish it, Mr. Malone," said he, with solemnity.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But what he had expected was nothing to what he realised.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

“Quite as comfortable as we can expect a young mother to be, under these melancholy domestic circumstances. There cannot be any objection to your seeing her presently, ma'am. It may do her good.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

In the pursuit of which, by thrift and management, I might reasonably expect, in about two hundred years, to be the wealthiest man in the kingdom.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The larger than expected forecast was caused by heavy June rains throughout the Mississippi River watershed.

(2015 Gulf of Mexico dead zone ‘above average’, NOAA)

You can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such opening for you.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I cannot precisely define what they expected, but it was something pleasant: not perhaps that day or that month, but at an indefinite future period.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Additionally, brown dwarfs will help scientists study exoplanets, planets outside our solar system, as the atmosphere of cool brown dwarfs is similar to what astronomers expect to find at many exoplanets.

(Powerful Auroras Found at Brown Dwarf, NASA)