expecting

1. 1
   adjective

   Pregnant; awaiting the birth of a child, said of a woman, female animal, or couple.

   The couple announced that they were expecting their first child.

   Our neighbor is expecting in late summer and has started decorating the nursery.

   Similarpregnant, expectant

   Note

   A pregnancy is either under way or not, so this adjective does not grade: no one is more expecting or very expecting. It works before a noun (the expecting mother) and, with no object at all, after a verb (when is the couple expecting?). Very expecting belongs to the "eager" adjective, so a modifier is the quickest way to tell the two apart.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of expect.

   Analysts are expecting a sharp rise in prices this quarter.

   The team is expecting tough competition at the finals.

   Note

   The progressive form pairs with be (analysts are expecting a rise), while the gerund fills noun slots (after expecting the worst). Because expect can also mean to be pregnant, she is expecting with no object sits right on the border with the "pregnant" adjective. Add an object, as in expecting a baby, and it is plainly the verb again.

3. 3
   adjective

   Full of expectation; eagerly anticipating that something will happen.

   An expecting hush settled over the courtroom before the verdict.

   She wore an expecting look, certain that her name would be called.

   Similarexpectant, eager, hopeful, anticipatory

   Note

   An adjective of faces and voices: James Fenimore Cooper's The Ways of the Hour (1850) has "very expecting countenances," and K. C. Williams's The All In Alchemist (2012) has "a very expecting tone." Unlike the pregnancy meaning, it takes very and more. Expectant carries the same idea more commonly. Expecting works best where the face or tone around it rules out any thought of a baby.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The mental act or process of anticipating that something will occur.

   Her constant expecting of disaster shaped every decision she made.

   The endless expecting of a verdict wore down everyone in the room.

   Similaranticipation, expectation, expectancy

   Note

   A gerund turned countable noun, at home in writing about how the mind works: Merrelyn Emery's Searching (1998) lists expectings alongside rememberings and imaginings. The plural is the giveaway, since the ordinary gerund of the verb form does not take -s. Outside such catalogues of mental acts, expectation is the noun most writers reach for.

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