hope

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To wish for a particular event that one considers possible.
• intransitive verb Archaic To have confidence; trust.
• intransitive verb To desire and consider possible: synonym: expect.
• noun The longing or desire for something accompanied by the belief in the possibility of its occurrence.
• noun An instance of such longing or desire.
• noun A source of or reason for such longing or desire.
• noun Christianity The theological virtue defined as the desire and search for a future good, difficult but not impossible to attain with God's help.
• noun Archaic Trust; confidence.
• idiom (hope against hope) To hope with little reason or justification.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun An inlet; a small bay; a haven.
• To entertain or indulge an expectation of something desired.
• To have confidence; trust with earnest expectation of good.
• To desire with expectation; look forward to as desirable, with the expectation of obtaining: with a clause (with or without that) or, less commonly, a noun as object.
• [Hope is also loosely used as synonymous with desire, long for, or wish.]
• To expect; regard as likely to happen: not implying desire: with a clause as object.
• To imagine; have an impression; think: with an effect of irony: as, I hope I know what I am talking about.
• noun A hollow; a valley; especially, the upper end of a narrow mountain valley when it is nearly encircled by smooth green slopes: nearly equivalent to comb.
• noun A mound; a hill. [Prov. Eng.] This word occurs in several place-names, as Easthope, Kirkhope, Stanhope, etc.
• noun Expectation of something desired; desire accompanied by expectation.
• noun Confidence in a future event, or in the future disposition or conduct of some person; trust, especially a high or holy trust.
• noun That which gives hope; one who or that which furnishes ground of expectation or promise of desired good; promise.
• noun The object of hope; the thing hoped for.
• noun Expectation, without reference to desire; prognostication.
• noun Synonyms Reliance, dependence.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun obsolete A sloping plain between mountain ridges.
• noun Scot. A small bay; an inlet; a haven.
• transitive verb To desire with expectation or with belief in the possibility or prospect of obtaining; to look forward to as a thing desirable, with the expectation of obtaining it; to cherish hopes of.
• transitive verb obsolete To expect; to fear.
• noun A desire of some good, accompanied with an expectation of obtaining it, or a belief that it is obtainable; an expectation of something which is thought to be desirable; confidence; pleasing expectancy.
• noun One who, or that which, gives hope, furnishes ground of expectation, or promises desired good.
• noun That which is hoped for; an object of hope.
• intransitive verb To entertain or indulge hope; to cherish a desire of good, or of something welcome, with expectation of obtaining it or belief that it is obtainable; to expect; -- usually followed by for.
• intransitive verb To place confidence; to trust with confident expectation of good; -- usually followed by in.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb To want something to happen.
• verb To be optimistic; be full of hope; have hopes.
• verb To expect and wish.
• noun uncountable The belief or expectation that something wished for can or will happen.
• noun countable The actual thing wished for.
• noun countable A person or thing that is a source of hope.
• noun Christianity The virtuous desire for future good.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb expect and wish
• noun one of the three Christian virtues
• noun United States comedian (born in England) who appeared in films with Bing Crosby (1903-2003)
• noun someone (or something) on which expectations are centered
• noun grounds for feeling hopeful about the future
• verb intend with some possibility of fulfilment
• verb be optimistic; be full of hope; have hopes
• noun the general feeling that some desire will be fulfilled
• noun a specific instance of feeling hopeful