What Is a Hope Chest?

A hope chest is a storage chest in which an unmarried woman stores items for her future "hoped for" marriage. The items may be made by herself, given to her, or purchased. Parents may also start hope chests for their daughters.

A hope chest is not so much an object as it is the purpose for which an object is used. If a woman is saving items for her future marriage, she has a hope chest even if she does not have a literal chest to store things in.

A chest, wooden or otherwise, is not a hope chest unless it serves this purpose. It either needs to have been a hope chest (such as your grandmother's), be a hope chest now (such as yours or your daughter's), or be reserved to become a hope chest in the future, in order to be accurately called a hope chest. Otherwise it's just a chest. *



* A woman hoping to be a mother or a grandmother may also have a "hope chest" of sorts for the storage of items for hoped for babies.