Word.ws English Dictionary

trouble

Syllables: trou·bleUK/ˈt͡ʃɹʌbəl/[ˈt͡ʃɹɐbɫ̩]

trouble noun: a distressing or dangerous situation.

Noun

trouble (countable and uncountable, plural troubles)

  1. A distressing or dangerous situation.
    • He was in trouble when the rain started.
  2. A difficulty, problem, condition, or action contributing to such a situation.
    • The trouble was a leaking brake line.
    • The bridge column magnified the trouble with a slight tilt in the wrong direction.
  3. A person liable to place others or themselves in such a situation.
    • Get me on the court and I'm trouble
      Last week, messed around and got a triple double1992, Ice Cube, “It Was A Good Day”, in The Predator
    • ’Cause I knew you were trouble when you walked in
      So shame on me no-ow2021, Taylor Swift, Max Martin, Shellback, “I Knew You Were Trouble (Taylor's Version)”, in Red (Taylor's Version), performed by Taylor Swift
  4. The state of being troubled, disturbed, or distressed mentally; unease, disquiet.
    • Yet oft when sundown skirts the moor
      ⁠An inner trouble I behold,
      ⁠A spectral doubt which makes me cold,
      That I shall be thy mate no more, […]1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XL”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 63
  5. Objectionable feature of something or someone; problem, drawback, weakness, failing, or shortcoming.
    • Your trouble is that you quit too readily.
    • The trouble with that suggestion is that we lack the funds to put it in motion.
  6. Violent or turbulent occurrence or event; unrest, disturbance.
    • the troubles in Northern Ireland
    • “I don’t know how you and the ‘head,’ as you call him, will get on, but I do know that if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there’ll be trouble. It’s bad enough to go around togged out like a life saver on a drill day, but I can stand that ’cause I'm paid for it. What I won’t stand is to have them...1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
  7. Efforts taken or expended, typically beyond the normal required.
    • It’s no trouble for me to edit it.
    • She never took the trouble to close them.1850, William Cullen Bryant, Letters of a Traveller
  8. Difficulty in doing something.
    • She has trouble eating.
  9. Health problems, ailment, generally of some particular part of the body.
    • He’s been in hospital with some heart trouble.
  10. A malfunction.
    • My old car has engine trouble.
  11. Liability to punishment; conflict with authority.
    • He had some trouble with the law.
    Synonyms:
    grief
  12. A fault or interruption in a stratum.
  13. (Cockney, slang) Wife. Clipping of trouble and strife.
  14. (dated, slang) An unplanned, unwanted or undesired pregnancy.
    • I never had schoolin’ but he taught me well / With his smooth southern style / Three months later I’m a gal in trouble / And I haven’t seen him for a while.1971, Bob Stone, “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves”, performed by Cher

Verb

trouble (third-person singular simple present troubles, present participle troubling, simple past and past participle troubled)

  1. (archaic, transitive) To disturb, stir up, agitate (a medium, especially water).
    • For an Angel went downe at a certaine season into the poole, and troubled the water:1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 5:4
    • God looking forth will trouble all his Hoſt1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
  2. (transitive) To mentally distress; to cause (someone) to be anxious or perplexed.
    • What she said about narcissism is troubling me.
    • Now is my soule troubled, and what shall I say? Father, saue me from this houre, but for this cause came I vnto this houre.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 12:27
  3. (transitive) In weaker sense: to bother or inconvenience.
    • I will not trouble you to deliver the letter.
  4. (transitive, usually) To physically afflict.
    • My bad knee is troubling me.
  5. (intransitive, reflexive) To take pains (to do something); to bother.
    • I won’t trouble to post the letter today; I can do it tomorrow.
    • « The hut’s not very tidy, if you don’t mind, » he said. « I cleared it what I could. » / « But I didn’t want you to trouble! » she said.1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter X, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, [Germany?]: Privately printed, →OCLC, page 132
  6. (intransitive) To worry; to be anxious.
    • Why trouble about the future? It is wholly uncertain.1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.26
    Synonyms:
    angst, anxietize, cark, fret

trouble meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

trouble in Hindi

distressful or dangerous situation
तकलीफ़ taklīf, कष्ट kaṣṭ, दिक़्क़त diqqat, दिक्कत dikkat, मुसीबत musībat

trouble in Tamil

பிரச்சினை, கலவரம், தொந்தரவு, கவலை, இன்னல்

trouble in Marathi

trouble, botheration
त्रास trās
trouble
हाल hāl

trouble in Urdu

distressful or dangerous situation
تکلیف taklīf, کشٹ kaṣṭ, بلا bela
More languagesFewer languages
trouble in Bengali
তকলিফ tokoliph
trouble in Telugu
గొడవ goḍava
trouble in Malayalam
കുഴപ്പം kuḻappaṁ, പ്രശ്നം praśnaṁ
trouble in Kannada
ತೊಂದರೆ tondare
trouble in Punjabi
بھسوڑی bhasūṛī, ਕਸ਼ਟ kaśaṭ, ਭਸੂੜੀ bhasūṛī, ਮਿਹਨਤ mihnat
trouble in Gujarati
તકલીફ taklīph, કસવું kasvũ
trouble in Odia
ହଇରାଣ hairāṇa, କାଟିବା kāṭibā
trouble in Sanskrit
बाधति bādhati
trouble in Nepali
दुःख duḥkha
trouble in Tagalog
istorbo, pahirapan
trouble in Arabic
مُشْكِلَة muškila, مَتاعِب matāʕib
trouble in Persian
زحمت zahmat
trouble in Vietnamese
rắc rối

Examples of trouble in a sentence

  • Lest the fiend […] some new trouble raise.1667, John Milton, “Book XI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert...
  • Foul whisperings are abroad; unnatural deeds / Do breed unnatural troubles.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […]...
  • Scientists must realize that dialectical materialism is the only way out of the trouble they have got into through ignorance of Marx and Engels.1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon...
  • “I don’t know how you and the ‘head,’ as you call him, will get on, but I do know that if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there’ll be trouble.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

All 40 example sentences with trouble

Synonyms of trouble

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of trouble

Forms of trouble

Noun
pluraltroubles
Verb
third-person singular presenttroubles
present participletroubling
past participletroubled
pasttroubled

Past tense of trouble: troubled

Plural of trouble: troubles

Origin of trouble

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.

Words formed from trouble

Phrases with trouble

22 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with trouble

Questions about trouble

What does trouble mean?
Trouble means a distressing or dangerous situation.
What is trouble in Hindi?
Trouble in Hindi is तकलीफ़ (taklīf), कष्ट (kaṣṭ), दिक़्क़त (diqqat). See Trouble meaning in Hindi.
How do you use trouble in a sentence?
Lest the fiend […] some new trouble raise.
What part of speech is trouble?
Trouble can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce trouble?
Trouble is pronounced /ˈt͡ʃɹʌbəl/ (UK).
What is the plural of trouble?
The plural of trouble is troubles.

Words near trouble in the dictionary

  1. troubadour fiddle
  2. troubadour fiddles
  3. troubadourish
  4. troubadourism
  5. troubadours
  6. trouble
  7. trouble and strife
  8. trouble at mill
  9. trouble at t'mill
  10. trouble at the mill
  11. trouble causer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: trouble (page history and authors); trouble (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); त्रास (Marathi) (page history and authors); ತೊಂದರೆ (Kannada) (page history and authors); بھسوڑی (Punjabi) (page history and authors); કસવું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); କାଟିବା (Odia) (page history and authors); दुःख (Nepali) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-trouble.ogg.

Cite this entry: “trouble.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/trouble. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.