different between expect vs lookfor

English

Alternative forms

• axpact, ax-pact (Bermuda)

Etymology

From Latin expect?re, infinitive form of exspect? (“look out for, await, expect”), from ex (“out”) + spect? (“look at”), frequentative of speci? (“see”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?sp?kt/, /?k?sp?kt/
• Hyphenation: ex?pect
• Rhymes: -?kt

Verb

expect (third-person singular simple present expects, present participle expecting, simple past and past participle expected)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To predict or believe that something will happen

   Synonyms: anticipate, hope, look for

   • 2018, VOA Learning English > China's Melting Glacier Brings Visitors, Adds to Climate Concerns

     And temperatures are expected to keep rising.

2. To consider obligatory or required.

   Synonyms: call for, demand

   • 1805, Nelson, Horatio via Pasco, John, signal sent at the Battle of Trafalgar:

     England expects that every man will do his duty.

3. To consider reasonably due.

   Synonyms: hope, want, wish

4. (continuous aspect only, of a woman or couple) To be pregnant, to consider a baby due.
   • 2011, Eva Fischer-Dixon, The Bestseller

     “You are pregnant?” he asked with shock in his voice. “Yes, Justin, I am expecting a child,”

5. (obsolete, transitive) To wait for; to await.

   Synonyms: await; see also Thesaurus:wait for

   • 1825, Walter Scott, The Talisman, A. and C. Black (1868), 24-25:

     The knight fixed his eyes on the opening with breathless anxiety, and continuing to kneel in the attitude of devotion which the place and scene required, expected the consequence of these preparations.

6. (obsolete, intransitive) To wait; to stay.

   Synonym: wait

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sandys to this entry?)

Usage notes

• Expect is a mental act and mostly has a reference to the future, to some forthcoming event (e.g. a person expects to die, or he expects to survive). Think and believe may have reference to the past and present, as well as to the future (e.g. I think the mail has arrived; I believe he came home yesterday, that he is at home now). There is a not uncommon use of expect, which is a confusion of the two (e.g. I expect the mail has arrived; I expect he is at home). Await is a physical or moral act. We await something which, when it comes, will affect us personally. We expect what may, or may not, interest us personally. See also anticipate.
• This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

Conjugation

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• expect in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• expect in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• expect at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• except