Definition of Trust

Trust

1. 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.
2. 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), esp. 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.
3. Assured resting of the mind on the integrity, veracity, justice, friendship, or other sound principle, of another person; confidence; reliance; reliance.
4. 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.
5. Assured anticipation; dependence upon something future or contingent, as if present or actual; hope; belief.
6. That which is committed or intrusted to one; something received in confidence; charge; deposit.
7. The condition or obligation of one to whom anything is confided; responsible charge or office.
8. That upon which confidence is reposed; ground of reliance; hope.
9. 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.
10. An organization formed mainly for the purpose of regulating the supply and price of commodities, etc.; as, a sugar trust.
11. Held in trust; as, trust property; trustmoney.
12. To place confidence in; to rely on, to confide, or repose faith, in; as, we can not trust those who have deceived us.
13. To give credence to; to believe; to credit.
14. To hope confidently; to believe; -- usually with a phrase or infinitive clause as the object.
15. to show confidence in a person by intrusting (him) with something.
16. To commit, as to one's care; to intrust.
17. 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.
18. To risk; to venture confidently.
19. To have trust; to be credulous; to be won to confidence; to confide.
20. To be confident, as of something future; to hope.
21. To sell or deliver anything in reliance upon a promise of payment; to give credit.