Word.ws English Dictionary

borrow trouble

borrow trouble verb: to worry about future events not in one's control and that may not come to pass.

Verb

borrow trouble (third-person singular simple present borrows trouble, present participle borrowing trouble, simple past and past participle borrowed trouble)

  1. (dated, idiomatic) To worry about future events not in one's control and that may not come to pass.
  2. (dated, idiomatic) To look for trouble; to ask for trouble.

Forms of borrow trouble

third-person singular presentborrows trouble
present participleborrowing trouble
past participleborrowed trouble
pastborrowed trouble

Questions about borrow trouble

What does borrow trouble mean?
Borrow trouble means to worry about future events not in one's control and that may not come to pass.
What part of speech is borrow trouble?
Borrow trouble is a verb.
What is the past tense of borrow trouble?
The past tense of borrow trouble is borrowed trouble.

Words near borrow trouble in the dictionary

  1. borrow from Peter to pay Paul
  2. borrow pit
  3. borrow pits
  4. borrow roll
  5. borrow rolls
  6. borrow trouble
  7. borrow'd
  8. borrowability
  9. borrowable
  10. borrowables
  11. borrowage

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: borrow trouble (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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