trouble
Americanverb (used with object)
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troubles,
present (3rd person singular)
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troubled,
past participle, past
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troubling
present participle
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to disturb the mental calm and contentment of; worry; distress; agitate.
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to put to inconvenience, exertion, pains, or the like.
May I trouble you to shut the door?
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to cause bodily pain, discomfort, or disorder to; afflict.
to be troubled by arthritis.
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to annoy, vex, or bother.
Don't trouble her with petty complaints now.
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to disturb, agitate, or stir up so as to make turbid, as water or wine.
A heavy gale troubled the ocean waters.
verb (used without object)
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troubles,
present (3rd person singular)
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troubled,
past participle, past
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troubling
present participle
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to put oneself to inconvenience, extra effort, or the like.
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to be distressed or agitated mentally; worry.
She always troubled over her son's solitariness.
noun
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troubles
plural
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difficulty, annoyance, or harassment.
It would be no trouble at all to advise you.
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unfortunate or distressing position, circumstance, or occurrence; misfortune.
Financial trouble may threaten security.
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civil disorder, disturbance, or conflict.
political trouble in the new republic; labor troubles.
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a physical disorder, disease, ailment, etc.; ill health.
heart trouble; stomach trouble.
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mental or emotional disturbance or distress; worry.
Trouble and woe were her lot in life.
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an instance of this.
some secret trouble weighing on his mind; a mother who shares all her children's troubles.
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effort, exertion, or pains in doing something; inconvenience endured in accomplishing some action, deed, etc..
The results were worth the trouble it took.
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an objectionable feature; problem; drawback.
The trouble with your proposal is that it would be too costly to implement.
- Synonyms:
- tribulation, trial, misfortune, affliction
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something or someone that is a cause or source of disturbance, distress, annoyance, etc.
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a personal habit or trait that is a disadvantage or a cause of mental distress.
His greatest trouble is oversensitivity.
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the Troubles,
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the violence and civil war in Ireland, 1920–22.
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the conflict between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, beginning in 1969.
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idioms
noun
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a state or condition of mental distress or anxiety
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a state or condition of disorder or unrest
industrial trouble
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a condition of disease, pain, or malfunctioning
she has liver trouble
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a cause of distress, disturbance, or pain; problem
what is the trouble?
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effort or exertion taken to do something
he took a lot of trouble over this design
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liability to suffer punishment or misfortune (esp in the phrase be in trouble )
he's in trouble with the police
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a personal quality that is regarded as a weakness, handicap, or cause of annoyance
his trouble is that he's too soft
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(plural)
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political unrest or public disturbances
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political violence in Ireland during the 1920s or in Northern Ireland between the late 1960s and the late 1990s
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the condition of an unmarried girl who becomes pregnant (esp in the phrase in trouble )
verb
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(tr) to cause trouble to; upset, pain, or worry
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to put oneself to inconvenience; be concerned
don't trouble about me
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(intr; usually with a negative) to take pains; exert oneself
please don't trouble to write everything down
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(tr) to cause inconvenience or discomfort to
does this noise trouble you?
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(tr; usually passive) to agitate or make rough
the seas were troubled
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(tr) to interfere with
he wouldn't like anyone to trouble his new bicycle
Synonym Usage
See care.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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troublednessnoun
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troublernoun
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overtroubleverb
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nontroublingadjective
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self-troubledadjective
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self-troublingadjective
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troubledadjective
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untroubledadjective
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troubledlyadverb
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troublinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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troublesimple
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troublessimple
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have troubledperfect
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has troubledperfect
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am troublingprogressive
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are troublingprogressive
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is troublingprogressive
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have been troublingperfect progressive
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has been troublingperfect progressive
Past
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troubledsimple
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had troubledperfect
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was troublingprogressive
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were troublingprogressive
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had been troublingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of trouble
First recorded in 1175–1225; (for the verb) Middle English troublen, from Old French troubler, from Vulgar Latin turbulāre (unrecorded), derivative of turbulus (unrecorded) “turbid,” back formation from Latin turbulentus “restless, unruly”; noun derivative of the verb; see turbulent
Explanation
Trouble is anything that causes difficulty, worry, and inconvenience, or that prevents you from doing something. If you have trouble getting along with a classmate, it is hard to be friendly with him or her. Whether you have trouble finding your shoes, you're in trouble with your teacher, or you go to a lot of trouble buying the kind of tea your sister likes, you face an annoying — and possibly distressing — difficulty. When you use trouble as a verb, it tells who or what is making life hard for you, like a headache that troubles you or childhood memories of encounters with scary clowns that probably trouble you even more deeply.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But, like Stokes, Brook is authentic in the way he plays and speaks, even if that can get him into trouble.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
The duo led early in the final set and had little trouble delivering a 21-13 victory.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
The experience shook the charity worker, who has had trouble sleeping since the attacks.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
New homeowners who are moving into properties with a homeowners association might be hit with a big bill if their HOA runs into financial trouble.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
Sancho wanted to laugh but was afraid to; he'd seen his master get angry, and that could mean trouble.
From "Adventures of Don Quixote" by Argentina Palacios
What troubles Howell is that central banks have been relying on issuance of bonds at the short end of the curve, buybacks and money market liquidity to maintain long-term yields.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
“Punctuation troubles our notions of control and authority,” she warns, “of identity both individual and collective.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
“Let the day’s own troubles be sufficient for the day.”
From Slate ● Aug. 7, 2026
Instead, Codex’s troubles turned out to be an early warning sign of challenges to come.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
Listening to music and dancing made me forget my troubles.
From "Breaking Through" by Francisco Jiménez
At the same time, Panettiere was being lauded for playing troubled country singer Juliette Barnes in TV drama Nashville, which earned her two Golden Globe nominations during its six-year run.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
But mainstream culture’s best-known Green Lanterns aren’t orphans or troubled.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
“We are not troubled by those comments from Netanyahu,” a senior U.S. official told Israel’s leading TV station.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
Yet Hoffs doesn’t seem especially troubled by the possibility that the Bangles might be underappreciated, perhaps because she’s got plenty of her own stuff going on.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
These questions had troubled William for much of his career.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
Oil prices are not higher largely because the world does not want as much oil as it used to — and that’s arguably the more troubling story.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
Background: ProPublica’s investigation recounted the troubling experiences of both mental health providers and of veterans seeking care.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026
Fans of celebrity bald eagle Jackie are again grappling with troubling news about her health, the latest downturn in an uneven recovery since her rescue near Big Bear Lake last month.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
Now, one prominent economist is warning that the specific methods used by the Treasury and Federal Reserve to help prop up the struggling yen send a troubling message about the status of the greenback.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
He’d have worried about the baby, but Sister Benedicta always told the truth; all the same, it was troubling.
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
