expecting

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪkˈspɛktɪŋ/, /ɛkˈspɛktɪŋ/
• Hyphenation: ex‧pect‧ing

• Audio (US):

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Verb

expecting

1. present participle and gerund of expect

Adjective

expecting (comparative more expecting, superlative most expecting)

1. (not comparable) Of a woman, female animal, or couple, in expectation of giving birth; pregnant.

   The expecting mother is enthusiastic about learning childcare.

   When is the new couple expecting?

2. Expectant.
   • 1850, James Fenimore Cooper, The Ways of the Hour:

     Dunscomb was in the sanctum, while a single clerk and three or four clients, countryment of decent exterior and very expecting countenances, occupied the outer room .

   • 1862, James Anthony Froude, History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of the Spanish Armada, page 419:

     Parma, unwilling to fight an action which might force France into the field, raised the siege; and Alençon, having strengthened the garrison, thrown in supplies, saved his credit with the Low Countries, and at all events, compromised himself, fell back into his expecting attitude, waiting for Elizabeth to reward him .

   • 2012, K. C. Williams, The All In Alchemist:

     "Hello!?!" she said in a very expecting tone.

Synonyms

• see pregnant

• enceinte
• in a delicate situation
• in the family way

Derived terms

• expectingly
• expectingness
• unexpecting

Translations

in expectation of giving birth; pregnant

• Akan: nyem
• Dutch: in verwachting
• Finnish: odottava (fi), raskaana oleva
• German: werdende (de) (Mutter), (ein Baby / Kind) erwartend (de), in anderen Umständen (sein), in gesegneten Umständen (sein), in guter Hoffnung (sein), in Hoffnung (sein), in der Hoffnung (sein), der Hoffnung (sein; today often humorous), in Erwartung (sein; elevated style), schwanger (de) (sein; human), trächtig (de) (sein; animal)
• Maori: hapū, āhua (mi)

Noun

expecting (plural expectings)

1. The process by which somebody expects something.
   • 1998, Merrelyn Emery, Searching: The Theory and Practice of Making Cultural Change:

     In this process participants become immersed in the dynamic interplay of rememberings, communal extraction, imaginings, expectings, etc., and of singular perceptions of each of these separately and as they come together […]

Translations

process by which somebody expects something

Anagrams

• excepting