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TROUBADOUR, s. [old French. Troubadour and 
trouveur or trouvere signify an inventor, or, as we for¬ 
merly called a poet, a maker; from tronver, to invent; 
the trouveurs of Normandy and Britany are represented as 
persons of higher attainments than their contemporaries the 
troubadours; the latter only of which is the name familiar 
to us.] An early poet of Provence.-—About the beginning 
of the eleventh century, and for a century or two after, flou¬ 
rished the tribe of troubadours, or Provencal poets. Harris. 
See Romance. , _ _ _ , 
To TROUBLE, v. a. [ troubler , Fr. Dr. Johnson.—Mr. 
H. Tooke calls trouble the past participle of the Sax. Cpibu- 
lan, tundere, conterere, pinsere, to bruise, to pound, to vex. 
The Latin tribulare is the same word, differing only by a 
different infinitive termination ; tribulan, tribulare. Div. 
of Purl. i. 247.—The German tribulieren is also used in the 
sense of the Sax. cpibulan, and, figuratively, for to vex. All 
perhaps, Fr. Sax. and German, are to be referred to the Lat. 
turbo, to disturb; whence the Germ, truben, by transpo¬ 
sition, the same; trube. Norm. Fr. trouble; toivrbled, old 
Eng. for troubled. Gloss, to Wicliffe; and in our ancient 
vocabulary, the Prompt. Parv., sturbler and sturbling are 
found for a troubler and a troubling.'] To disturb; to per¬ 
plex._Never trouble vourself about those faults which age 
will cure. Locke. —to afflict; to grieve.—It would not 
trouble me to be slain for thee, but much it torments me to 
lie slain by thee. Sidney.— To distress; to make uneasy— 
He had credit enough with his master to provide for his own 
interest, and troubled not himself for that of others. Cla¬ 
rendon. —To busy; to engage overmuch.—Martha, thou art 
careful, and troubled about many things. St. Luke.— To 
give occasion of labour to. A word of civility or slight 
regard.- —I will not trouble myself to prove that all terms 
are not definable, from that progress in infinitum which it 
will lead us into. Locke. —To tease; to vex. 
The boy so troubles me; 
’Tis past enduring. Shakspeare. 
To disorder; to put into agitation or commotion.—The 
best law in our days is that which continues our judges dur¬ 
ing their good behaviour, without leaving them to the mercy 
of such who might, by an undue influence, trouble and 
pervert the course of justice. Addison. —[In low language.] 
To sue for a debt. 
TROUBLE, s. [trouble, French.] Disturbance; per¬ 
plexity. 
They all his host derided, while they stood 
A while in trouble. Milton. 
Affliction; calamity. 
Double, double, toil and trouble. 
Fire burn and cauldron bubble. Shakspeare. 
Molestation; obstruction ; inconvenience. 
Take to thee from among the cherubim 
Thy choice of flaming warriours, lest the fiend 
—some new trouble raise. Milton. 
Uneasiness; vexation. 
\ have dream'd 
Of much offence and trouble, which my mind 
Knew never till this irksome night. Milton. 
TROUBLE-STATE, s. Disturber of a community; 
public makebate. 
Those fair baits these trouble-states still use. 
Pretence of common good, the king's ill course, 
Must be cast forth. Daniel. 
TROUBLER, s. Disturber; confounder. — The best 
temper of minds desireth good name and true honour; the 
lighter, popularity and applause; the more depraved, sub¬ 
jection and tyranny; as is seen in great conquerors and 
troublers of the world, and more in arch heretics. Bacon. 
TROUBLESOME, adj. Vexatious; uneasy; afflictive. 
Heaven knows 
By what bye-paths and indirect crooked ways 
I met this crown; and I myself know well 
How troublesome it sat upon my head: 
To thee it shall descend with better quiet. Shakspeare. 
Full of molestation.—Though our passage through this 
world be rough and troublesome, yet thetrouble will be but 
short, and the rest and contentment at the end will be an 
ample recompence. Atterbury. —Burdensome; tiresome; 
wearisome.—My mother will never be troublesome to me. 
Pope. —Full of teasing business.—All this could not make 
us accuse her, though it made us almost pine away for 
spight, to lose any of our time in so troublesome an idle¬ 
ness. Sidney. —Slightly harassing. 
They eas’d the putting off 
These troublesome disguises which we wear. Milton. • 
Unseasonably engaging; improperly opportuning. 
She of late is lightened of her womb, 
That her to see should be but troublesome. Spenser , 
Importunate; teasing.—Two or three troublesome old 
nurses never let me have a quiet night’s rest with knocking 
me up. Arbuthnot. 
TRO'UBLESOMELY, adv. Vexatiously; wearisomely ; 
unseasonably; importunately.—Though men will not be so 
troublesomely critical as to correct others in the use of words; 
yet, where truth is concerned, it can be no fault to desire 
their explication. Locke. 
TROUBLESOMENESS, s. Vexatiousness; uneasiness. 
—The lord treasurer complained of the troublesomeness of 
the place, for that the exchequer was so empty: the chancel¬ 
lor answered. Be of good cheer, for now you shall see the 
bottom of your business at the first. Bacon. —Importunity; 
unseasonableness. 
TROUBLOUS,Tumultuous; confused; disordered; 
put into commotion. An elegant word, but disused. 
As a tall ship tossed in troublous seas, 
Whom raging winds threaten to make the prey 
Of the rough rocks. Spenser. 
TRO'VER, s. [trouver, French.] In the common law, 
is an action which a man hath against one that having found 
any of his goods refuseth to deliver them upon demand. 
Cowel. 
Bring my action of conversion 
And trover for my goods. Hudibras, 
TROUGH, s. [cpog,cpoh, Saxon; troch, Dutch; trou, 
Danish; traug, feel.; truogo, Italian.] Any thing hol¬ 
lowed and open longitudinally on the upper side.—Where 
there is a good quick fall of rain-water, lay a half trough of 
stone, of a good length, three foot deep, with one end upon 
the high ground, the other upon the low; cover the trough 
with brakes a good thickness, and cast sand upon the top of 
the brakes, the lower end of the trough will run like a spring 
of water. Bacon. 
TROUGH, a hamlet of England, in Cumberland; 9j 
miles north-east of Langtown. 
TROUGHEND, a township of England, in Northumber¬ 
land ; 20 miles north-by-west of Hexham. Population 3S0. 
TROUILLE, a small river of the Netherlands, in the 
province of Hainault. It falls into the Haisne near Ge- 
mappe. 
To TROUL. See To Troll. 
TROUN, Cape, a cape on the north coast of Staten 
island, in the North Pacific ocean. Lat. 45. 30. N. long. 
148. 10. E. 
To TROUNCE, v. a. [derived by Skinner from tronc or 
tronqon, French, a club. —This is an old word in our lan¬ 
guage, and used for beat or discomfit, long before Butler’s 
time, from whose Hudibras Dr. Johnson’s earliest example 
is taken.] To punish by an indictment or information; to 
punish severely.—If you talk of peaching. I’ll peach first: 
I’ll trounce you for offering to corrupt my honesty. Dry den. 
TROUP HEAD, a cape of Scotland, on the north coast 
of the county of Banff; 10 miles west of Kinnaird ? s point. 
Lat. 57. 39. N. long. 2. 11. W. 
TROUP, 
