trouble

See also: troublé

English

Etymology

Verb is from Middle English troublen, trublen, turblen, troblen, borrowed from Old French troubler, trobler, trubler, metathetic variants of tourbler, torbler, turbler, from Vulgar Latin *turbulō, from Latin turbula (“disorderly group, a little crowd or people”), diminutive of turba (“stir; crowd”). The noun is from Middle English truble, troble, from Old French troble, from the verb.

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: trŭbʹəl; IPA(key): /ˈtɹʌb(ə)l/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈtɹʌb(ə)l/, /ˈtɹə-/
  • Audio (GA)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌbəl
  • Hyphenation: trou‧ble

Noun

trouble (countable and uncountable, plural troubles)

  1. A distressing or dangerous situation.
    He was in trouble when the rain started.
  2. A difficulty, problem, condition, or action contributing to such a situation.
    The trouble was a leaking brake line.
    The trouble with that suggestion is that we lack the funds to put it in motion.
    The bridge column magnified the trouble with a slight tilt in the wrong direction.
  3. A person liable to place others or themselves in such a situation.
  4. A violent occurrence or event.
    the troubles in Northern Ireland
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 7, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      “I don't know how you and the ‘head,’ as you call him, will get on, but I do know that if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there'll be trouble. It's bad enough to go around togged out like a life saver on a drill day, but I can stand that 'cause I'm paid for it. What I won't stand is to have them togs called a livery. […]”
  5. Efforts taken or expended, typically beyond the normal required.
    It's no trouble for me to edit it.
  6. A malfunction.
    He's been in hospital with some heart trouble.   My old car has engine trouble.
  7. Liability to punishment; conflict with authority.
    He had some trouble with the law.
  8. (mining) A fault or interruption in a stratum.
  9. (Cockney rhyming slang) Wife. Clipping of trouble and strife.
  10. An unplanned, unwanted and/or undesired pregnancy.
    • 1971, Bob Stone (lyrics and music), “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves”, performed by Cher:
      I never had schoolin' but he taught me well / With his smooth southern style / Three months later I'm a gal in trouble / And I haven't seen him for a while.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Collocations
Verbs often used with "trouble"

make, spell, stir up, ask for, etc.

Descendants
  • Jersey Dutch: tröbel

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See also
  • Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take for uses and meaning of trouble collocated with these words.

Verb

trouble (third-person singular simple present troubles, present participle troubling, simple past and past participle troubled)

  1. (transitive, now rare) To disturb, stir up, agitate (a medium, especially water).
  2. (transitive) To mentally distress; to cause (someone) to be anxious or perplexed.
    What she said about narcissism is troubling me.
  3. (transitive) In weaker sense: to bother or inconvenience.
    I will not trouble you to deliver the letter.
  4. (reflexive or intransitive) To take pains to do something.
    I won't trouble to post the letter today; I can do it tomorrow.
  5. (intransitive) To worry; to be anxious.
    • 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.26:
      Why trouble about the future? It is wholly uncertain.

Derived terms

Descendants
  • → Jersey Dutch: tröble

Translations

Further reading

Anagrams

French

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /tʁubl/
  • Audio(file)

Etymology 1

Deverbal from troubler or from Old French troble.

Noun

trouble m (plural troubles)

  1. trouble
  2. (medicine, psychiatry) disorder
Derived terms

(medicine, psychiatry):

Etymology 2

Inherited from Old French troble, probably from a Vulgar Latin *turbulus (with metathesis), itself perhaps an alteration of Latin turbidus with influence from turbulentus; cf. also turbula. Compare Catalan tèrbol, Romanian tulbure.

Adjective

trouble (plural troubles)

  1. (of a liquid) murky, turbid, muddy, thick, clouded, cloudy; not clear
Derived terms

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

trouble

  1. inflection of troubler:
    1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading
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