Obs. Also 3–5 trost, 5 truste. See also TRAIST a., TREST a., TRIST a.1 (Early ME. trust (ū or ŭ), app.:—OE. *trust (ū or ŭ) (not recorded, evidently not WSax.), simple grade of which ON. traustr ‘strong, firm, secure, trusty,’ is an ablaut grade (trust, treust, traust); thence ME. trust and trost; the rare trist was app. assimilated to TRIST v.]
1. Confident, safe, secure, sure.
c. 1200. [implied in TRUSTLY 1].
12[?]. Ancr. R., 66. To sum gostliche monne þat ȝe beoð strusti uppen [MS. Titus, þat ȝe arn trust on].
a. 1425. Cursor M., 2573 (Trin.). Be trust in þis þat I þe hiȝt. Ibid., 11161. Be truste & in no deewrynes.
2. Faithful, trusty; reliable, sound.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 212. Ȝif þou selle a crokyd hors for a clene, a ruynous hows for trust hows.
β. c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 60. His sonnes boþe tille him war trost als stele.
? 13[?]. Adultery, 102, in Herrig’s Archiv, LXXIX. 420. Sche was … bothe trost & trewe.
1389. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 46. An Aldirman…; and foure skeuaynes, trost men and trewe.
c. 1425. Cast. Persev., 477, in Macro Plays, 91. If he wyl be trost & trye, he schal be kyng.
