trust

trust n 1 Trust, confidence, reliance, dependence, faith can all mean the fact of feeling sure or the state of mind of one who feels sure that a person or thing will not fail him.

Trust implies an absolute and assured resting on something or someone; it often suggests a basis upon other grounds than experience or sensible proofs. It is the most frequent term in religious use

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O God ... in thee is my unbelief— Mk 141:8

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but it occurs also in secular use, especially when an intimate knowledge of or a deep affection for someone is implied

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he was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust—Shak.

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or when there has been no cause for changing an instinctive or intuitive judgment respecting a person's or thing's reliability

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the ways in which some of the most highly placed and powerful figures in the state have betrayed the public trust— Armbrister

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Confidence need not imply such definite grounds for one's assurances as the support of experience or of convincing evidence; when it does, it carries less suggestion of emo-tional factors than trust and a stronger implication of an assurance based upon the evidence of one's senses

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those in whom we had no confidence, and who reposed no confidence in us— Burke

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When it does not imply such grounds, it usually suggests less reliable grounds for that feeling than does trust

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he had ... an unquenchable confidence in himself and a deep, burning sense of mission— Shirer

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Reliance implies not only an attitude or feeling but also an objective expression of it in act or action

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he had such reliance on the doctor's skill that he allowed himself to be operated upon at once

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his diffidence had prevented his depending on his own judgment in so anxious a case, but his reliance on mine made everything easy— Austen

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Mark had written out his Christmas sermon with a good deal of care and an excessive reliance on what other preachers had said before him— Mackenzie

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Dependence differs from reliance chiefly in suggesting greater subordination of self

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affectionate dependence on the Creator— Thomas Erskine

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he had a . . . mixture of conceit and terrible self-doubt, and ... he shifted between extremes of emotional dependence and independence— Wouk

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Faith (see also BELIEF 1) implies confidence, but it often suggests a degree of credulity or an unquestioning acceptance of something capable of being objectively tested and proved or disproved; it is often used when the person or thing in which one has faith is open to question or suspicion

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he has great faith in a popular patent medicine

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my faith in Germanism had not wavered— H. S. Chamberlain

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Analogous words: assurance, conviction, certitude, *certainty: *belief, faith, credence, credit

Antonyms: mistrust

2 *monopoly, corner, pool, syndicate, cartel

trust vb *rely, depend, count, reckon, bank

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