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)
-
troubled,
past participle, past
-
troubling
present participle
-
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.
-
civil disorder, disturbance, or conflict.
political trouble in the new republic; labor troubles.
-
a physical disorder, disease, ailment, etc.; ill health.
heart trouble; stomach trouble.
-
mental or emotional disturbance or distress; worry.
Trouble and woe were her lot in life.
-
an instance of this.
some secret trouble weighing on his mind; a mother who shares all her children's troubles.
-
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.
-
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?
-
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
-
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:
Treasuries remain the ultimate safe haven in times of trouble including Thursday’s tech stock rout.
From Barron's ● Oct. 22, 2026
Am I in trouble for potentially breaking Jim Nance’s hand on the broadcast on Sunday with our with our ball drill?’”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026
It means that while England are in deep trouble after one defeat, New Zealand still have a strong chance of making the last four despite losing to favourites Australia in a high-quality opening match.
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026
Were that scandal to have been the last substantial national news story to explode out of Minnesota over the last year, Flanagan could be in even worse trouble.
From Slate ● Oct. 22, 2026
“I didn’t have any trouble at all. I think they wanted to be caught. They sure acted like they did.”
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
Thomas wishes to transcend such political line-drawing, just as he wishes to brush aside the troubles of his absent son.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026
L'Oreal has largely been able to avoid the troubles that luxury groups have faced thanks to its products aimed at the mass market and professionals.
From Barron's ● Oct. 22, 2026
Puerto focuses on a more common scenario: As documented in “The Turnaway Study,” people who seek and are denied abortions are likely to struggle with poverty, debt, underemployment, and troubles with physical and mental health.
From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026
Before his legal troubles, Shkreli was viewed as a brash outsider.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
She was sure the Gran would ask Valley if she was okay or if there were troubles at home.
From "Witchlings" by Claribel A. Ortega
Annour, he added, has been troubled by knee injuries on the field but remains “a strong and quiet yet forceful personality of the group.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026
"My work, my profits and my workforce have all been cut in half," he told AFP, adding that he was deeply troubled by the fear and family separations caused by immigration enforcement.
From Barron's ● Oct. 19, 2026
Some of its business decisions have also drawn attention, particularly Tata Steel's troubled Corus acquisition, though other overseas bets such as Tetley and Jaguar Land Rover were successful and helped expand the group's global footprint.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
A disease that has troubled white button mushroom growers for more than 100 years is far more complicated than scientists previously believed.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026
He needed peace to clear his troubled mind.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
This troubling narrative was outlined by Schmidt during an interview on the podcast released Wednesday by the chief executive of Norway’s $2 trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund, Nicolai Tangen.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2026
One particularly troubling aspect of the current crisis is that many of the threatened forests have burned before.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 18, 2026
But what we saw in the briefing room this week was far more troubling than one woman falling on her face.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2026
“Equally troubling, the Department does not discipline deputies for statements made during the investigation to justify their actions when those statements are obviously inconsistent with clear video evidence.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
She saw such behavior as a troubling sign of the rising shiftlessness of the age.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
