Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Expectation

Ex′pec·ta′tion (ĕks′pĕk·tā′shŭn) n. [L. expectio. exspectio: cf. F. expectation.] 1. The act or state of expecting or looking forward to an event as about to happen. "In expectation of a guest." Tennyson.

My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him. Ps. lxii. 5.

2. That which is expected or looked for.

Why our great expectation should be called The seed of woman. Milton.

3. The prospect of the future; grounds upon which something excellent is expected to happen; prospect of anything good to come, esp. of property or rank.

His magnificent expectations made him, in the opinion of the world, the best match in Europe. Prescott.

By all men's eyes a youth of expectation. Otway.

4. The value of any chance (as the prospect of prize or property) which depends upon some contingent event. Expectations are computed for or against the occurrence of the event.

5. (Med.) The leaving of the disease principally to the efforts of nature to effect a cure.

Expectation of life, the mean or average duration of the life individuals after any specified age.

Syn. — Anticipation; confidence; trust.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.