entrust
Americanverb (used with object)
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entrusts,
present (3rd person singular)
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entrusted,
past participle, past
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entrusting
present participle
verb
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(usually foll by with) to invest or charge (with a duty, responsibility, etc)
-
(often foll by to) to put into the care or protection of someone
Usage
It is usually considered incorrect to talk about entrusting someone to do something: the army cannot be trusted (not entrusted ) to carry out orders
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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entrustsimple
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entrustssimple
-
have entrustedperfect
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has entrustedperfect
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am entrustingprogressive
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are entrustingprogressive
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is entrustingprogressive
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have been entrustingperfect progressive
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has been entrustingperfect progressive
Past
-
entrustedsimple
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had entrustedperfect
-
was entrustingprogressive
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were entrustingprogressive
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had been entrustingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of entrust
Explanation
To entrust is to give someone a responsibility you assume she will fulfill. If you entrust someone with the task of getting you to school on time, make sure she’s punctual. To entrust is to let someone take care of something for you because you believe she will protect it. It could be a duty or a thing — you might entrust a nursing home with the care of your parents or entrust an accountant with your finances. Entrust is a verb that needs an object, so you always entrust with or to something. If a friend entrusts you with a secret, she trusts you not to tell.
Vocabulary lists containing entrust
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Murrin’s case highlights pitfalls that lurk when people entrust someone with their taxes, according to Olson.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 27, 2026
Major investors and tenants also remain reluctant to entrust multibillion-dollar decisions to unproven platforms.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 2026
When we entrust digital platforms with our biometric data, we hand over unique, irreplaceable biological identifiers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026
But his absence left USC to entrust defensive line coach Eric Henderson to step into a role he wasn’t expecting.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2025
“If I were Ella St. Clay and I wanted to protect each page, what better way than to entrust each key with the one person who lived through the story!”
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
It added: "Leadership in football is not a possession. It is not about holding - or demanding - power to be held. It is a duty of service to the football family that entrusts it."
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
Constitution entrusts Congress with the power to “declare war.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 3, 2026
Ohtani instead entrusts the team’s public relations staff to decline interviews on his behalf.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2025
Our legal system entrusts trial judges with a wide swath of discretionary decisions in ruling on evidence, framing jury instructions, and controlling other facets of the cases they try, with barely any appellate supervision.
From Slate ● Jan. 16, 2024
"He entrusts some small matters to us, to lighten his load."
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
The World Cup semifinal — one of the biggest matches a referee can officiate — had just been entrusted to the Salvadoran.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
A single cremation cost about £500, Paxton added, but Bush "chose not to deal with those bodies entrusted to him but to operate as he chose and spend the money on himself and others".
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
As head of the IRS and Social Security Administration, Frank Bisignano is entrusted with the private financial records of every American taxpayer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
A probe into donations allegedly siphoned off at India's grand Ram temple has renewed scrutiny of how religious sites manage vast amounts of cash and gold entrusted to them by devotees.
From Barron's ● Jul. 19, 2026
He had entrusted the letter to an actor friend, who was to deliver it to the National Intelligencer for publication.
From "Chasing Lincoln's Killer" by James L. Swanson
Asked about entrusting such a project to Riyadh despite criticism of its human rights record, his office said: "At no point, when we attract a project, do we seek to lecture others."
From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026
"It's inhumane. We've been entrusting him to the centre," Noorman said.
From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2026
Amazon has suffered a spate of outages, some of them lasting hours, since it began entrusting more software coding responsibilities to AI bots while laying off human engineers, according to the Financial Times.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 30, 2026
As these concerns mount, few in the industry have addressed the character of their AI models in quite the same way as 5-year-old Anthropic: by entrusting a single person with so much of the task.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 9, 2026
It becomes a compulsory act on the one who knows to ensure that this entrusting does not occur.
From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
