expectancy

Noun

1. Expectation or anticipation; the state of expecting something.
   • [T]he Dukes dissembled their feares, and dissolued their forces, and remained in expectancie what would ensue. - 1599, John Hayward, The First Part of the Life and Raigne of King Henrie IIII. Extending to the end of the...
   • If you foresee not this misery, and the fatall consequence which necessarily must follow such a turn of Fortune, I must leave you to your own will and expectancy […] - 1651, John Milton, The Life and Reigne of King...
   • [T]his is generally thought to repreſent the Vices of Nero, vvho […] did from the higheſt Expectancy become a ſtubborn and a fooliſh Tyrant. - 1735, Titus Petronius Arbiter, “The Feast of Trimalchio, Imitaded. From...
2. The state of being expected.
3. Future interest as to possession or enjoyment
4. expectation; expected value
5. Something expected or awaited.
   • O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown! / The courtier’s, scholar’s, soldier’s, eye, tongue, sword, / Th’ expectancy and rose of the fair state […] - c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of...
   • […] Frederic II. King of Prussia, in consequence of an expectancy granted to the house of Brandenburg, by the Emperor Leopold in 1604, took possession of East Friezland […] - 1791, John Trusler, chapter 9, in The...