- (n.) A business organization or combination consisting of a number of firms or corporations operating, and often united, under an agreement creating a trust (in sense 1), especially one formed mainly for the purpose of regulating the supply and price of commodities, etc.; often, opprobriously, a combination formed for the purpose of controlling or monopolizing a trade, industry or business, by doing acts in restraint or trade; as, a sugar trust. A trust may take the form of a corporation or of a body of persons or corporations acting together by mutual arrangement, as under a contract or a so-called gentlemen's agreement. When it consists of corporations it may be effected by putting a majority of their stock either in the hands of a board of trustees (whence the name trust for the combination) or by transferring a majority to a holding company. The advantages of a trust are partly due to the economies made possible in carrying on a large business, as well as the doing away with competition. In the United States severe statutes against trusts have been passed by the Federal government and in many States, with elaborate statutory definitions.
- (n.) An equitable right or interest in property distinct from the legal ownership thereof; a use (as it existed before the Statute of Uses); also, a property interest held by one person for the benefit of another. Trusts are active or special, express, implied, constructive, etc. In a passive trust the trustee simply has title to the trust property, while its control and management are in the beneficiary.
- (n.) To place confidence in; to rely on, to confide or repose faith, in; as, we can not trust those who have deceived us.
- (v.i.) To sell or deliver anything in reliance upon a promise of payment; to give credit.
- (n.) The condition or obligation of one to whom anything is confided; responsible charge or office.
- (n.) To give credit to; to sell to upon credit or in confidence of future payment; as, merchants and manufacturers trust their customers annually with goods.
- (n.) To hope confidently; to believe; -- usually with a phrase or infinitive clause as the object.
- (n.) Assured resting of the mind on the integrity, veracity, justice, friendship or other sound principle, of another person; confidence; reliance; reliance.
- (n.) Credit given; especially, delivery of property or merchandise in reliance upon future payment; exchange without immediate receipt of an equivalent; as, to sell or buy goods on trust.
- (n.) Assured anticipation; dependence upon something future or contingent, as if present or actual; hope; belief.
- (n.) To commit, as to one's care; to intrust.
- (n.) That which is committed or intrusted to one; something received in confidence; charge; deposit.
- (n.) to show confidence in a person by intrusting (him) with something.
- (n.) That upon which confidence is reposed; ground of reliance; hope.
- (a.) Held in trust; as, trust property; trustmoney.
- (n.) To risk; to venture confidently.
- (n.) To give credence to; to believe; to credit.
- (v.i.) To have trust; to be credulous; to be won to confidence; to confide.
- (v.i.) To be confident, as of something future; to hope.
- (n.) An organization formed mainly for the purpose of regulating the supply and price of commodities, etc.; as, a sugar trust.
- (n.) An estate devised or granted in confidence that the devisee or grantee shall convey it or dispose of the profits, at the will or for the benefit, of another; an estate held for the use of another; a confidence respecting property reposed in one person, who is termed the trustee, for the benefit of another, who is called the cestui que trust.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
| APA | Webster's. (2011). trust. Retrieved September 21, 2026, from http://smartdefine.org/trust/definitions/2075233 |
| Chicago | Webster's. 2011. "trust" http://smartdefine.org/trust/definitions/2075233 (accessed September 21, 2026). |
| Harvard | Webster's 2011, trust, Smart Define, viewed 21 September, 2026, <http://smartdefine.org/trust/definitions/2075233>. |
| MLA | Webster's. "trust" 28 May 2011. Web. 21 September 2026. <http://smartdefine.org/trust/definitions/2075233> |