# trust

/ˈtɹəst/ (US) · /tɹˈʌst/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/trust
Updated: 2026-08-15

## Senses

### 1. to believe in someone

verb · CEFR A2

to believe that someone is honest, good, and will not harm you.

For teachers: to place confidence in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something.

- You can trust her with your secrets because she never tells anyone.
- After years of working together, the partners had learned to trust each other's instincts during difficult negotiations.

### 2. to hope

verb · CEFR B1 · Formal

to hope or expect that something is true or will happen.

For teachers: to believe or hope with a degree of confidence; often introduces a clause.

- I trust that you had a safe journey home last night.
- The director wrote to the shareholders, stating he trusted the new strategy would yield results by the third quarter.

### 3. the feeling of belief

noun · CEFR B1

the belief that you can rely on someone or something.

For teachers: a firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something; an uncountable abstract noun in this sense.

- It takes a long time to build trust in a new relationship.
- The scandal severely damaged the public's trust in the local government's ability to manage the budget.

### 4. legal arrangement

noun · CEFR B2 · Technical

a legal way to hold money or property for someone else, like a child.

For teachers: a fiduciary arrangement where a third party holds assets on behalf of a beneficiary.

- Her grandparents put money in a trust for her university education.
- The estate was held in a discretionary trust to ensure the assets were protected for future generations.

### 5. large business group

noun · CEFR C1 · Academic

a large group of companies that work together to control a market.

For teachers: a large-scale business combination or monopoly formed to restrict competition.

- The government introduced new laws to break up the oil trust.
- Nineteenth-century legislators struggled to regulate the powerful steel trusts that dominated the national economy.

### 6. computing access

noun · CEFR C1 · Technical

a setting that allows a computer or user to access a system.

For teachers: the degree to which a system or component is allowed to access resources based on verified identity.

- The administrator had to establish a trust between the two servers.
- Zero-trust architecture requires every user to be authenticated before gaining access to the private network.

### 7. believe me

interjection · CEFR C1 · Slang · Informal

a short way to say 'believe me' or 'I am telling the truth'.

For teachers: an elliptical form of 'trust me', used for emphasis or to assert the truth of a statement.

- That movie is the best one I have seen all year, trust.
- You don't want to go to that part of town after dark, trust; it's not as safe as it looks.

## Examples

- A good relationship is built on honesty and trust.
- After he lied about where he was going, it took months for him to rebuild her trust.
- Public trust in the institution eroded rapidly following the scandal, demonstrating how decades of credibility can be dismantled by a single ethical breach.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.