Word.ws English Dictionary

half-expect

half-expect verb: almost to expect; to think that something may happen, without being entirely sure.

Verb

half-expect (third-person singular simple present half-expects, present participle half-expecting, simple past and past participle half-expected)

  1. Almost to expect; to think that something may happen, without being entirely sure.
    • - I'm afraid we have no appointments available until next week.
      - Oh, that's all right; I half-expected that.

Forms of half-expect

third-person singular presenthalf-expects
present participlehalf-expecting
past participlehalf-expected
pasthalf-expected

Origin of half-expect

From half- + expect.

Questions about half-expect

What does half-expect mean?
Half-expect means almost to expect; to think that something may happen, without being entirely sure.
What part of speech is half-expect?
Half-expect is a verb.
What is the past tense of half-expect?
The past tense of half-expect is half-expected.

Words near half-expect in the dictionary

  1. half-embracing
  2. half-equation
  3. half-equations
  4. half-evergreen
  5. half-evergreens
  6. half-expect
  7. half-expected
  8. half-expecting
  9. half-expects
  10. half-faced
  11. half-filled

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: half-expect (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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