trouble

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.

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: trŭbʹəl; IPA^(key): /ˈtɹʌb(ə)l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹʌb(ə)l/, /ˈtɹə-/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌbəl
• Hyphenation: trou‧ble

trouble (countable and uncountable, plural troubles)

1. A distressing or dangerous situation.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:difficult 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 bridge column magnified the trouble with a slight tilt in the wrong direction.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book XI”, in Paradise Lost. , London: ">…] , and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

     Lest the fiend some new trouble raise.

   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Foul whisperings are abroad; unnatural deeds / Do breed unnatural troubles.

3. A person liable to place others or themselves in such a situation.
   • 2021, Taylor Swift, Max Martin, Shellback, “I Knew You Were Trouble (Taylor's Version)”, in Red (Taylor's Version)‎, performed by Taylor Swift:

     ’Cause I knew you were trouble when you walked in
     So shame on me no-ow

4. The state of being troubled, disturbed, or distressed mentally; unease, disquiet.

   Synonyms: anguish, torment; see also Thesaurus:distress

   • 1850, , “Canto XL”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, page 63:

     Yet oft when sundown skirts the moor
     ⁠An inner trouble I behold,
     ⁠A spectral doubt which makes me cold,
     That I shall be thy mate no more,

5. Objectionable feature of something or someone; problem, drawback, weakness, failing, or shortcoming.

   Synonyms: pain in the neck; see also Thesaurus:defect, Thesaurus:hindrance, Thesaurus:nuisance

   The trouble with that suggestion is that we lack the funds to put it in motion.

6. Violent or turbulent occurrence or event; unrest, disturbance.

   Synonyms: palaver, turmoil; see also Thesaurus:commotion

   the troubles in Northern Ireland

   • 1913, Joseph C Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     “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. ”

7. Efforts taken or expended, typically beyond the normal required.

   It’s no trouble for me to edit it.

   • 1850, William Cullen Bryant, Letters of a Traveller:

     She never took the trouble to close them.

   • 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque:

     Indeed, by the report of our elders, this nervous preparation for old age is only trouble thrown away.

8. Difficulty in doing something.

   She has trouble eating.

9. Health problems, ailment, generally of some particular part of the body.

   Synonyms: affliction, malady; see also Thesaurus:disease

   He’s been in hospital with some heart trouble.

10. A malfunction.

    My old car has engine trouble.

11. Liability to punishment; conflict with authority.

    He had some trouble with the law.

12. (mining) A fault or interruption in a stratum.
13. (Cockney rhyming slang) Wife. Clipping of trouble and strife.

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:wife

14. (slang, dated) An unplanned, unwanted or undesired pregnancy.
    • 1971, Bob Stone, “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.

• Jersey Dutch: tröbel

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

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).

   Synonyms: inturbidate, muddle, roil, stir

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, John 5:4:

     For an Angel went downe at a certaine season into the poole, and troubled the water:

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. , London: ">…] , and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, line 1100:

     God looking forth will trouble all his Hoſt

3. (transitive) To mentally distress; to cause (someone) to be anxious or perplexed.

   Synonyms: distress, torment; see also Thesaurus:vex

   What she said about narcissism is troubling me.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, John 12:27:

     Now is my soule troubled, and what shall I say? Father, saue me from this houre, but for this cause came I vnto this houre.

   • c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 281, column 2:

     Take the Boy to you: he ſo troubles me, / ’Tis paſt enduring.

   • 1693, , “§65”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: A and J Churchill, , →OCLC, page 68:

     Never trouble your ſelf about thoſe Faults in them, which you know Age will cure.

4. (transitive) In weaker sense: to bother or inconvenience.

   Synonyms: discommode, hassle, incommode; see also Thesaurus:annoy

   I will not trouble you to deliver the letter.

5. (transitive, of ailments, etc.) To physically afflict.

   My bad knee is troubling me.

6. (reflexive or intransitive) To take pains to do something; to bother.

   Synonyms: make an effort, take great pains

   I won’t trouble to post the letter today; I can do it tomorrow.

7. (intransitive) To worry; to be anxious.

   Synonyms: angst, anxietize, cark, fret

   • 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.26:

     Why trouble about the future? It is wholly uncertain.

• turbid
• turbulent

• → Jersey Dutch: tröble

• “trouble”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E Smith, editors (1911), “trouble”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• -buterol, Boulter, boulter

• IPA^(key): /tʁubl/

• Audio:

  (file)

Deverbal from troubler or from Old French troble.

trouble m (plural troubles)

1. trouble

   fauteur de troubles ― troublemaker

2. (medicine, psychiatry) disorder

   trouble bipolaire ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   trouble de la personnalité ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   trouble de l'érection ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   trouble de l'humeur ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   trouble du sommeil ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   trouble mental ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   trouble obsessionnel compulsif ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   trouble psychiatrique ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   trouble psychique ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

• → German: Trubel

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.

trouble (plural troubles)

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

• pêcher en eau trouble

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

trouble

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

• “trouble”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.