HO'PEFUL, adjective Having qualities which excite hope; promising or giving ground to expect good or success; as a hopeful youth; a hopeful prospect. 1. Full of hope or desire, with expectation. I was hopeful the success of your first attempts would encourage you to the trial of more nice and difficult experiments.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI