Hope

Pronunciation

• RP enPR: hōp, IPA: /həʊp/
• GenAm IPA: /hoÊŠp/
• Rhymes: -əʊp

From Middle English hope, from Old English hopa ("hope, expectation"), from Proto-Germanic *hupǭ, *hupō ("hope"), from Proto-Germanic *hupōną ("to hope"), from Proto-Indo-European *kēwp-, *kwēp- ("to smoke, boil"). Cognate with West Frisian hope ("hope"), Dutch hoop ("hope"), Middle High German hoffe ("hope"), German hoffen ("hope"), Swedish hopp ("hope"). Extra-Germanic cognates include Latin cupio ("I desire, crave"), Albanian ngop ("I'm satisfied, sated") and gopë ("greedy, voracious").

Full definition of hope

Noun

1. (uncountable) The belief or expectation that something wished for can or will happen.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 3, My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out.
2. I still have some hope that I can get to work on time.
   After losing my job, there's no hope of being able to afford my world cruise.
   There is still hope that we can find our missing cat.
3. (countable) The actual thing wished for.
4. (countable) A person or thing that is a source of hope.
   We still have one hope left: my roommate might see the note I left on the table.
5. (Christianity) The virtuous desire for future good.
• The Holy Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:13But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Derived terms

From Middle English hopen, from Old English hopian.

Verb

1. To want something to happen, with a sense of expectation that it might.
   I hope everyone enjoyed the meal.
   I am still hoping that all will turn out well.
• 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 10, He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.
• 2013-06-08, Obama goes troll-hunting, The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.
2. To be optimistic; be full of hope; have hopes.
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To place confidence; to trust with confident expectation of good; usually followed by in.
• Bible, Psalms cxix. 81I hope in thy word.
• Bible, Psalms xlii. 11Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God.

Usage notes

This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See

Derived terms

• hoped for

Compare Icelandic word for a small bay or inlet.

Noun

1. A sloping plain between mountain ridges.
2. (Scotland) A small bay; an inlet; a haven.