Link Centre Dictionary

trouble

UK/ˈtɹʊbəl/ US/ˈt͡ʃɹʌbəl/ very common slang
noun (6) verb (5)

noun

1.

a source of difficulty

  • “one trouble after another delayed the job”
  • “what”
Synonyms
2.

an angry disturbance

  • “he didn”
  • “;”
  • “;”
Synonyms
3.

an event causing distress or pain

  • “what is the trouble?”
  • “heart trouble”
4.

an effort that is inconvenient

  • “I went to a lot of trouble”
  • “he won without any trouble”
  • “had difficulty walking”
  • “finished the test only with great difficulty”
Synonyms
5.

a strong feeling of anxiety

  • “his worry over the prospect of being fired”
  • “it is not work but worry that kills”
  • “he wanted to die and end his troubles”
Synonyms
6.

an unwanted pregnancy

  • “he got several girls in trouble”

verb

1.

move deeply

  • “This book upset me”
  • “A troubling thought”
Synonyms
2.

to cause inconvenience or discomfort to

  • “Sorry to trouble you, but...”
Synonyms
3.

disturb in mind or make uneasy or cause to be worried or alarmed

  • “She was rather perturbed by the news that her father was seriously ill”
Synonyms
4.

take the trouble to do something; concern oneself

  • “He did not trouble to call his mother on her birthday”
  • “Don”
Synonyms
5.

Origin

Verb is from Middle English troublen, trouble, 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 trouble, troble, from Old French troble, from the verb.

Phrases

  • a trouble shared is a trouble halved
  • ask for trouble
  • borrow trouble
  • double trouble
  • engine trouble
  • finger trouble
  • for one's trouble
  • foul trouble
  • trouble the scorers

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.