trouble
Americanverb (used with object)
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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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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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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:
Kennedy told The Times in 2023 that the school came to him after it had trouble finding another wealthy booster to foot the bill.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
Never mind that countless PBS documentaries have had no trouble realistically depicting revolutionary-era America without AI; Netflix is innovating.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026
Divergence can be the hallmark of a rally when a new industry has taken the market baton, but also a preview of broader market trouble.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Lee Blackett's attack, which did trouble South Africa in patches, was at its free-flowing best against Fiji, but arguably looked most impressive in the first half against Argentina.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
Earlier today, I asked Zara what she thought, and she told me that no guy would have gone to the trouble of tracking down my number to reschedule a date only to not show up.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
"It's definitely helped because he's been through the troubles of sport, so he's very motivating; he's the one I go to if I need any help," Amankwaah said.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
But she warned: "Changing prime minister is not a silver bullet. Indeed, it may be that the Labour Party's troubles are only just beginning."
From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026
But as its challenges grow, so does the argument for OpenAI to move quickly and raise what money it can—before its troubles really catch up to it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
Sasaki’s troubles this season have been hard to pin down since his last win on May 23, as Sasaki tries to claw back the triple-digit velocity that’s escaped him as of late.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
Her birth had been welcomed and, in spite of recent troubles, everyone would rally around to make her future as pleasant as possible.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
She returns to a western Pennsylvania town called Harmony, where she once had “a horrible, endless date over crepes,” to investigate a strike over pay and working conditions at a troubled nursing home.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
Coming through a gruelling fortnight - particularly in the hot conditions that have troubled him previously - is testament to the work Sinner has put in.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
In the course of their meetings with Cook, President Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also brought up another American company: the troubled chip maker Intel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
The progressive veteran and oysterman’s campaign has been troubled nearly from the start.
From Salon ● Jul. 7, 2026
Balder would wake from these dreams in tears, troubled beyond all telling.
From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman
However, that’s far from the most troubling part of this story.
From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2026
Do that repeatedly, year after year, and the implications are troubling.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
Residents have been receiving troubling calls from people pretending to be their grandchildren, swindling them out of thousands of dollars.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2026
Overlaying the rescue of the boy and the identification of the abductor is a nuanced and troubling examination of trauma and how it creates its own kind of prison.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
More troubling still, where did the singularity of the big bang come from?
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
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.
