hope

See also: Hope and hopë

English

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: hōp, IPA(key): /həʊp/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /hoʊp/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Rhymes: -əʊp

Etymology 1

From Middle English hopen, from Old English hopian (hope), from Proto-West Germanic *hopōn, further etymology unclear.

Verb

hope (third-person singular simple present hopes, present participle hoping, simple past and past participle hoped)

  1. To want something to happen, with a sense of expectation that it might [with that (+ clause) or clause or so].
    They are hoping it does not rain, but I expect it will.
    He's still hoping that everything will turn out fine.
    — Is he going to shut up soon? — I hope so.
    I'm going to get a new car. I hope it will be better than the last one.
    I'd hoped I'd find a job, but I never did, so I was hoping you could lend me some cash.
    I hope {to - (that) I'll} have finished by next Sat at the latest.
    • 1961 October, “The winter timetables of British Railways: Southern Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 593:
      It is to be hoped that some corresponding smartening up of these other schedules may be expected before long.
    • 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:
      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. (catenative) To intend to do something and look forward to the prospect of having done it [with to (+ infinitive)].
    I hope to succeed.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      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.
  3. (intransitive) To expect optimistically that one might get something (either a change in circumstance or an object) [with for].
    They're hoping for the best, but I don't think it's looking very good.
    I'm hoping for my boss to offer me a pay raise.
  4. (intransitive) To place confidence; to trust with confident expectation of good [with in].
  5. (transitive, dialectal, nonstandard) To wish.
    I hope you all the best.
Conjugation
Conjugation of hope
infinitive (to) hope
present tense past tense
1st-person singular hope hoped
2nd-person singular hope, hopest hoped, hopedst
3rd-person singular hopes, hopeth hoped
plural hope
subjunctive hope hoped
imperative hope
participles hoping hoped

Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms
Translations
See also

Etymology 2

From Middle English hope, from Old English hopa (hope, expectation), from the same source as the verb hope.

Noun

hope (countable and uncountable, plural hopes)

  1. (countable or uncountable) The feeling of trust, confidence, belief or expectation that something wished for can or will happen.
    All hopes for a truce are gone after the latest attack.
    After losing my job, there's frail hope of affording my world cruise.
    There is still hope that we can find our missing cat.
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter III, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
      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. (countable) The actual thing wished for.
  3. (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.
  4. (Christianity, uncountable) The virtuous desire for future good.
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Etymology 3

From Middle English hope (a valley), from Old English hōp (found only in placenames). More at hoop.

Noun

hope (plural hopes)

  1. (Should we move, merge or split(+) this sense?) (Northern England, Scotland) A hollow; a valley, especially the upper end of a narrow mountain valley when it is nearly encircled by smooth, green slopes; a combe.

Etymology 4

From Icelandic hóp (a small bay or inlet). Cognate with English hoop.

Noun

hope (plural hopes)

  1. (Should we move, merge or split(+) this sense?) A sloping plain between mountain ridges.[1]
  2. (Scotland) A small bay; an inlet; a haven.[2]

References

Anagrams

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • Audio:(file)

Verb

hope

  1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of hopen

Hawaiian

Etymology

From Proto-Eastern Polynesian *sope (buttocks, rear end). Cognate with Maori hope (waist), Tahitian hope (finished).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈho.pe/

Noun

hope

  1. back, rear, (of a vessel) aft
  2. subsequent, next
  3. younger
  4. last
  5. residue
  6. fate

Derived terms

  • i hope (in back, behind)
  • mahope (behind; afterwards)
  • hopena (result)

Further reading

Maori

Etymology

From Proto-Eastern Polynesian *sope (buttocks, rear end). Cognate with Hawaiian hope (behind), Tahitian hope (finished).

Noun

hope

  1. waist
  2. hip (ringa hope)

Derived terms

  • hopehope (tattoo on the lower back)
  • tikihope (loins)

Further reading

  • hope” in John C. Moorfield, Te Aka: Maori–English, English–Maori Dictionary and Index, 3rd edition, Longman/Pearson Education New Zealand, 2011, →ISBN.

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old English hopa.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈhɔːp(ə)/

Noun

hope (plural hopes)

  1. trust, confidence; wishful desire; expectation

Descendants

  • English: hope
  • Yola: hopes (plural)

References

Shona

Etymology

From the root of Common Bantu *dʊ̀kópè, whence also chikope (eyelid).

Noun

hópé class 10

  1. sleep

Spanish

Verb

hope

  1. only used in me hope, first-person singular present subjunctive of hoparse
  2. only used in se hope, third-person singular present subjunctive of hoparse
  3. only used in se ... hope, syntactic variant of hópese, third-person singular imperative of hoparse

West Frisian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈhoːpə/

Noun

hope n (no plural)

  1. alternative form of hoop