“troubles” is a form of
trouble
/ˈt͡ʃɹʌbəl/ noun, verb
Forms troubles troubling troubled
- noun A distressing or dangerous situation. “He was in trouble when the rain started.”
- noun A difficulty, problem, condition, or action contributing to such a situation. “The trouble was a leaking brake line.”
- noun A person liable to place others or themselves in such a situation.
- noun The state of being troubled, disturbed, or distressed mentally; unease, disquiet.
- noun Objectionable feature of something or someone; problem, drawback, weakness, failing, or shortcoming. “Your trouble is that you quit too readily.”
- noun Violent or turbulent occurrence or event; unrest, disturbance. “the troubles in Northern Ireland”
- noun Efforts taken or expended, typically beyond the normal required. “It’s no trouble for me to edit it.”
- noun Difficulty in doing something. “She has trouble eating.”
- verb (transitive, now rare) To disturb, stir up, agitate (a medium, especially water).
- verb (transitive) To mentally distress; to cause (someone) to be anxious or perplexed. “What she said about narcissism is troubling me.”
- verb (transitive) In weaker sense: to bother or inconvenience. “I will not trouble you to deliver the letter.”
- verb (transitive, of ailments, etc.) To physically afflict. “My bad knee is troubling me.”
- verb (reflexive or intransitive) To take pains (to do something); to bother. “I won’t trouble to post the letter today; I can do it tomorrow.”
- verb (intransitive) To worry; to be anxious.
Synonyms
ass in a sling bind bucket of syrup calvary cauldron cross cross to bear difficulty dilemma dire straits doghouse fix hole jam kettle kettle of fish ordeal pickle pinch plight problem fuss bother hassle worry disturb upset put out inconvenience disoblige
Etymology
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.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To put into confused motion; to disturb; to agitate.
- verb To disturb; to perplex; to afflict; to distress; to grieve; to fret; to annoy; to vex. Now is my soul troubled. John xii. 27.
- adjective Troubled; dark; gloomy. [Obs.] "With full trouble cheer." Chaucer.
- noun The state of being troubled; disturbance; agitation; uneasiness; vexation; calamity.
Etymology [F. troubler, OF. trobler, trubler, tourbler,fr. (assumed) LL. turbulare, L. turbare to disorderly group, a little crowd; both from turba a disorder, tumult, crowd; akin to Gr. thorp; cf. Skr. tvar, tur,o hasten. Cf. Turbid.]
Etymology [F. trouble, OF. troble, truble. See Trouble, v. t.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “trouble”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details