Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Firm belief in the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing; confidence or reliance.
  • noun The condition and resulting obligation of having confidence placed in one.
  • noun One in which confidence is placed.
  • noun Custody; care.
  • noun Something committed into the care of another; a charge.
  • noun Reliance on something in the future; hope.
  • noun Reliance on the intention and ability of a purchaser to pay in the future; credit.
  • noun A legal relationship in which one party holds a title to property while another party has the entitlement to the beneficial use of that property.
  • noun The confidence reposed in a trustee when giving the trustee legal title to property to administer for another, together with the trustee's obligation regarding that property and the beneficiary.
  • noun The property so held.
  • noun An institution or organization directed by trustees.
  • noun A combination of firms or corporations for the purpose of reducing competition and controlling prices throughout a business or industry.
  • intransitive verb To have or place confidence in; depend on.
  • intransitive verb To have confidence in allowing (someone) to use, know, or look after something.
  • intransitive verb To expect with assurance; assume.
  • intransitive verb To give credence to; believe.
  • intransitive verb To place in the care of another person or in a situation deemed safe; entrust.
  • intransitive verb To extend credit to.
  • intransitive verb To have or place reliance; depend.
  • intransitive verb To be confident; hope.
  • idiom (in trust) In the possession or care of a trustee.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Reliance on the veracity, integrity, justice, friendship, or other virtue or sound principle of another; a firm reliance on promises or on laws or principles; confidence; belief.
  • noun Confident expectation; assured anticipation; dependence upon something future or contingent as if present or actual; hope.
  • noun That on which one relies or in which he confides; ground of reliance, confidence, or hope.
  • noun Credit.
  • noun Confidence in the ability and intention of one who does not pay ready money to pay at some definite or indefinite time in the future: as, to buy or sell on trust.
  • noun In law: A confidence reposed in a person by making him the nominal owner of property which he is to hold, use, or dispose of for the benefit of another.
  • noun The right on the part of such other to enjoy the use or the profits or to require a disposal of the property for his benefit.
  • noun The relation between persons and property which arises when the legal ownership is given to one person, called the trustee, and the beneficial enjoyment or advantages of ownership are given or reserved to another, the cestui que trust or beneficiary.
  • noun That which is committed or intrusted to one, as for safe-keeping or use.
  • noun Something confided to one's faith; a charge given or received in confidence; something which one is bound in duty and in honor to keep inviolate; a duty incumbent on one.
  • noun Specifically, in mod. com. usage, an organization for the control of several corporations under one direction by the device of a transfer by the stockholders in each corporation of at least a majority of the stock to a central committee or board of trustees, who issue in return to such stockholders respectively certificates showing in effect that, although they have parted with their stock and the consequent voting power, they are still entitled to dividends or to share in the profits—the object being to enable the trustees to elect directors in all the corporations, to control and suspend at pleasure the work of any, and thus to economize expenses, regulate production, and defeat competition.
  • noun The state of being confided in and relied on; the state of one to whom something is intrusted.
  • noun The state of being confided to another's care or guard; charge.
  • noun Keeping; care.
  • noun Trustworthiness.
  • noun A trust is also said to be executed when the trustee has performed his entire duty.
  • noun When the instrument creating a trust in land has the effect by virtue of the statute of uses of vesting the entire estate in the intended beneficiary, the trust is said to be executed by the statute.
  • noun A deed conveying property to a creditor in trust to sell and pay himself and restore the residue: a kind of mortgage.
  • noun Synonyms and Faith, credence, assurance, dependence, expectation.
  • Held in trust: as, trust property; trust money.
  • To place or repose confidence in (a person); rely upon; depend upon.
  • To believe; credit; receive with credence, as a statement, assertion, or the like.
  • To intrust: with with before the object confided.
  • To commit, consign, or allow with confidence; permit to be in some place, position, or company, or to do some particular thing, without misgiving or fear of consequences: as, to trust one's self to another's guidance.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English truste, perhaps from Old Norse traust, confidence; see deru- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English truste ("trust, protection"), from Old Norse traust ("confidence, help, protection"), from Proto-Germanic *traust-, from Proto-Indo-European *drouzdo-, from Proto-Indo-European *deru- (“be firm, hard, solid”). Akin to Danish trøst, tröst ("trust"), Old Frisian trāst ("trust"), Dutch troost ("comfort, consolation"), Old High German trōst ("trust, fidelity"), German Trost ("comfort, consolation"), Gothic trausti ("alliance, pact"). More at true, tree.

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