rely

rely, trust, depend, count, reckon, bank can all mean to have or place full confidence.

One relies on or upon someone or something that one believes will never fail in giving or doing what one wishes or expects. Rely usually connotes a judgment based on previous experience and, in the case of persons, actual association

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he relies on his father to help him out of trouble

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he never relies on the opinions of others

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a physician upon whom all his patients rely

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bitter experience soon taught him that lordly patrons are fickle and their favor not to be relied on— Huxley

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he is entitled to one or two men whose personal loyalty he can rely upon— Michener

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One trusts, or trusts in or to, when one is completely assured or wholly confident that another will not fail one in need. Trust stresses unquestioning faith which need not be based on actual experience

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take short views, hope for the best, and trust in God— Sydney Smith

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because he trusted his own individual strength, he was hostile to planning— Commager

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One depends on or upon someone or something when one, with or without previous experience, rests confidently on him or it for support or assistance. Depend may connote a lack of self-sufficiency or even weakness; it often implies so strong a belief or so confident an assumption that the hoped-for support or assistance is forthcoming that no provision for the contrary is made

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his diffidence had prevented his depending on his own judgment . . . but his reliance on mine made everything easy— Austen

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the captain of the ship at sea is a remote, inaccessible creature . . . depending on nobody— Conrad

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the man never cared; he was always getting himself into crusades, or feuds, or love, or debt, and depended on the woman to get him out— Henry Adams

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One counts or reckons on something when one takes it into one's calculations as certain or assured; the words often imply even more confidence in expectation than depend and may carry even more than the latter's frequent suggestion of possible distress or disaster if one's expectations are not fulfilled

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they told me I was going to get a pension. I counted on it. And now they take it away— Upson

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Christian souls who counted on the slaves for their bread and butter— Brooks

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the Oriental writer reckons largely on the intellectual cooperation of his reader— Cheyne

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But these terms are often weakened in use to the point that they mean little more than expect

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the Soviet economic administration . . . reckons on good rather than poor crops— Van Valkenburg & Huntington

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he had not counted on having to pay for a room— Irwin Shaw

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One banks on something or someone in which one's confidence is as strong as it would be in a bank to which one would entrust one's money; hence, the term is appropriate when one wishes to express near absolute certainty without any of the other implications inherent in depend, count, and reckon

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the kind of people you could bank on in a tight place— J. D. Adams

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you can bank on his honesty

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had reliable sources of information, and you could bank on what he said

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Analogous words: confide, entrust, *commit: hope, *expect, look, await