trouble English
Noun
( en noun)
A distressful or dangerous situation.
-
A difficulty, problem, condition, or action contributing to such a situation.
* (John Milton)
- Lest the fiend some new trouble raise.
* (William Shakespeare)
- Foul whisperings are abroad; unnatural deeds / Do breed unnatural troubles .
-
A violent occurrence or event.
* , chapter=7
, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients
, passage=“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. […]”}}
-
Efforts taken or expended, typically beyond the normal required.
* Bryant
- She never took the trouble to close them.
*1881 , :
*:Indeed, by the report of our elders, this nervous preparation for old age is only trouble thrown away.
-
A malfunction.
-
Liability to punishment; conflict with authority.
-
(mining) A fault or interruption in a stratum.
Usage notes
* Verbs often used with "trouble": make, spell, stir up, ask for, etc.
Synonyms
* See also
Derived terms
* ask for trouble
* distrouble
* double trouble
* engine trouble
* get into trouble
* in trouble
* teething troubles
* trouble and strife
* troubled
* trouble-free
* trouble in paradise
* troublemaker/trouble maker
* troubler
* The Troubles
* troubleshoot
* troubleshooter
* troubleshooting
* troublesome
* trouble spot
See also
* for uses and meaning of trouble collocated with these words.
Verb
( troubl)
To disturb, stir up, agitate (a medium, especially water).
* Bible, John v. 4
- An angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water.
* Milton
- God looking forth will trouble all his host.
To mentally distress; to cause (someone) to be anxious or perplexed.
* Bible, John xii. 27
- Now is my soul troubled .
* Shakespeare
- Take the boy to you; he so troubles me / 'Tis past enduring.
* John Locke
- Never trouble yourself about those faults which age will cure.
In weaker sense: to bother; to annoy, pester.
- Question 3 in the test is troubling me.
- I will not trouble you to deliver the letter.
To take pains to do something.
* 1946 , (Bertrand Russell), History of Western Philosophy , I.26:
- Why trouble about the future? It is wholly uncertain.
Related terms
* turbid
* turbulent
Statistics
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haunt English
Alternative forms
* (l) (Scotland)
Verb
( en verb)
To inhabit, or visit frequently (most often used in reference to ghosts).
- A couple of ghosts haunt the old, burnt-down house.
* Shakespeare
- You wrong me, sir, thus still to haunt my house.
* Jonathan Swift
- those cares that haunt the court and town
* Fairfax
- Foul spirits haunt my resting place.
To make uneasy, restless.
- The memory of his past failures haunted him.
To stalk, to follow
- The policeman haunted him, following him everywhere.
To live habitually; to stay, to remain.
* 1526 , William Tyndale, trans. Bible , John XI:
- Jesus therfore walked no more openly amonge the iewes: butt went his waye thence vnto a countre ny to a wildernes into a cite called effraym, and there haunted with his disciples.
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.x:
- yonder in that wastefull wildernesse / Huge monsters haunt , and many dangers dwell
To accustom; habituate; make accustomed to.
* Wyclif
- Haunt thyself to pity.
To practise; to devote oneself to.
* Ascham
- Leave honest pleasure, and haunt no good pastime.
To persist in staying or visiting.
* Shakespeare
- I've charged thee not to haunt about my doors.
Noun
( en noun)
A place at which one is regularly found; a hangout.
*
* 1868 , , "Kitty's Class Day":
- Both Jack and Fletcher had graduated the year before, but still took an interest in their old haunts , and patronized the fellows who were not yet through.
* 1984 , Timothy Loughran and Natalie Angier, " Science: Striking It Rich in Wyoming ," Time , 8 Oct.:
- Wyoming has been a favorite haunt of paleontologists for the past century ever since westering pioneers reported that many vertebrate fossils were almost lying on the ground.
(dialect) A ghost.
* 1891 , Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country , Nebraska 2005, p. 93:
- ‘Harnts don't wander much ginerally,’ he said. ‘They hand round thar own buryin'-groun' mainly.’
A feeding place for animals.[Oxford English Dictionary , 2nd ed., 1989.]
References
Anagrams
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