Noun

Singular trust

Plural trusts

trust (plural trusts)

1. Confidence in or reliance on some person or quality.

   • 1671, O ever-failing trust / In mortal strength! — John Milton, Samson Agonistes

2. Dependence upon something in the future; hope.

   • 1611, Such trust have we through Christ. — Authorised Version, 2 Corinthians iii:4.

3. Confidence in the future payment for goods or services supplied; credit.

   I was out of cash, but the landlady let me have it on trust.

4. (rare) Trustworthiness, reliability.
5. (law) The confidence vested in a person who has legal ownership of a property to manage for the benefit of another.
6. A group of businessmen or traders organised for mutual benefit to produce and distribute specific commodities or services, and managed by a central body of trustees.

Synonyms

• belief
• confidence
• expectation

• faith
• hope

Antonyms

• mistrust

Trust may refer to:

• Trust (social sciences), reliance on another person or entity

Business and legal

• Trust (law), an arrangement in which property is managed by one person or entity for the benefit of another
• Trust (19th century), a business entity formed to create a monopoly or fix prices
• Massachusetts business trust, a type of company also called an unincorporated business organization
• Investment trust, a collective investment fund
• Trust company, a financial institution offering certain services

Trust is a relationship of reliance. A trusted party is presumed to seek to fulfill policies, ethical codes, law and their previous promises.

Sourced

• You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough.
  • Frank Crane, quoted in Business Education World, Vol. 15 (1935) p. 172

• All our progress is an unfolding, like the vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge, as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason. It is vain to hurry it. By trusting it to the end it shall ripen into truth, and you shall know why you believe.
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, in Essays (First series, 1841), Essay XI : Intellect

• When we trust ourselves, ascents become descents, difficulties turn into easinesses, rocks transform into sands and swords into melting candles!..
  • Mehmet ildan, Quotations

• In Reason, Nature, Truth, he dares to trust: Ye Fops, be silent: and ye Wits, be just.
  • Samuel Johnson in The Tragedy of Irene (1749), Prologue

• As it is necessary not to invite robbery by supineness, so it is our duty not to suppress tenderness by suspicion; it is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.
  • Samuel Johnson, in The Rambler, No. 79 (18 December 1750)

• To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.
  • George MacDonald, in The Marquis of Lossie (1877)