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Trouble vs Complacency - What's the difference?

trouble | complacency |

As nouns the difference between trouble and complacency

is that trouble is a distressful or dangerous situation while complacency is a feeling of contented self-satisfaction, especially when unaware of upcoming trouble.

As a verb trouble

is to disturb, stir up, agitate (a medium, especially water).

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

    *

    External links

    * * 1000 English basic words ----

    complacency

    English

    Alternative forms

    * complacence

    Noun

    (complacencies)
  • A feeling of contented self-satisfaction, especially when unaware of upcoming trouble.
  • *
    • There was something pathetic in his concentration as if his complacency , more acute than of old, was not enough to him any more. When, almost immediately, the telephone rang inside and the butler left the porch Daisy seized upon the momentary interruption and leaned toward me.
  • * Addison
    • Others proclaim the infirmities of a great man with satisfaction and complacency , if they discover none of the like in themselves.
  • An instance of self-satisfaction.

    • Related terms

    * complacent