troll
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: arts
astronomy
climatology
entertainment
fantasy
fishing
folklore
history
hobbies
human-sciences
lifestyle
literature
media
meteorology
music
natural-sciences
publishing
sciences
Etymology: Partly:
* from Middle English trol (“demon (?); sorcerer (?)”) [and other forms], from Old Norse trǫll (“conjurer, mage; witch”), from Proto-Germanic *truzlą (“supernatural being; demon, fiend; giant; monster”), probably from *trudaną (“to step on; to tread”) + *-ilą (suffix forming agent nouns); and
* borrowed from Norwegian Bokmål troll, Swedish troll, or Danish trold, from Old Norse trǫll (see above).
Doublet of droll and trow.
Cognates
* Danish fortrylle (“to bewitch”), trylle (“to conjure”)
* Icelandic tröll
* Middle High German trol, crewtrolle (“spook, wraith; ogre, monster”)
* Norwegian fortrylle (“to bewitch”), trylle (“to conjure”)
* Swedish trolla (“to conjure”)
Inflected forms:
form: trolls
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: trolls
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: trolling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: trolled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: trolled
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: troll
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: troll
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: trolled
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: troll
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: trollest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: trolled
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: trolledst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: trolls
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: trolleth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: trolled
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: troll
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: trolled
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: troll
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: trolled
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: troll
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: trolling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: trolled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: trowl
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: trowle
pos: verb
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: a giant supernatural being, especially a grotesque humanoid creature living in caves or hills or under bridges.
pos: noun
tags: European
also
examples: He followed their advice, and rode through a rye-field, where the Trolls were unable to follow him, but in their exasperation cried after him, "The red cock shall crow over thy dwelling." And behold! his house stood in a blaze.
The Scandinavian fancied himself surrounded by Trolls,—a kind of goblin men, with vast power of work and skilful production,—divine stevedores, carpenters, reapers, smiths, and masons, swift to reward every kindness done them, with gifts of gold and silver.
The bear got so angry that he rushed at the trolls and scratched them all over, while Peter took the other handspike and hammered away at them as if he wanted to beat their brains out. The trolls had to clear out at last, but Peter stayed and enjoyed himself with all the Christmas fare the whole week. After that the trolls were not heard of there for many years.
In these manuscripts we are again in an atmosphere of eotens and trolls, there are traces of even older terrors, when the first Teuton settlers in Europe struggled with the aborigines who lived in caves, hints as elusive as the phantom heroes in the Saxon poems, and as unforgettable.
gloss: a giant supernatural being, especially a grotesque humanoid creature living in caves or hills or under bridges.
pos: noun
tags: European
also
obsolete
examples: The more usual appellation of the Dwarfs is Troll or Trold, a word originally significant of any evil spirit, giant monster, magician, or evil person; but now in a good measure divested of its ill senses, for the Trolls are not in general regarded as noxious or malignant beings. [...] They are obliging and neighbourly; freely lending and borrowing, and elsewise keeping up a friendly intercourse with mankind.
gloss: An ugly or unpleasant person.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
derogatory
slang
examples: The way Torchie had talked about him, I expected him to be some kind of troll. But he could have passed for one of those actors who makes a couple of movies, gets real popular with the girls for a year or two, and then vanishes from sight. He had that kind of face.
In this work, the abject object—a sculpture of a fat, hairy woman—is heartbreakingly comforted by a text that claims the artist's love and desire to protect the 'ugly' troll.
She sulked as we returned downstairs, her own more colorful clothes stuffed into her bright green shoulder bag. / "I just wish I didn't have to dress like such a troll." / "Troll? Impossible. I'm wearing beige and do I look like a troll?" / "Since you asked—"
Edwin Baer was an ugly troll of a man. He stood just about five feet, six inches and maybe weighed 140 pounds soaking wet.
gloss: An optical ejection from the top of the electrically active core region of a thunderstorm that is red in colour and seems to occur after tendrils of vigorous sprites extend downward towards cloudtops.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
gloss: A Michigander who lives on the mainland, i.e. not a resident of the Upper Peninsula, so named due to living south of the Mackinaw Bridge.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
informal
examples: People from the Upper Peninsula—the UP, or the Yoop—some-times call citizens of northern Michigan trolls, because they live “below the bridge.”
gloss: Senses relating to a rolling motion.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Take trustie (to trust to) that thinkest to thee, / That trustily thriftines trowleth to thee.
[T]o trovvle in the caſh throughout all nations chriſtendome there is no fellovve to the red herring.
She fancied these Elysian shades / The sweetest place for masquerades: / How pleasant on the banks of Styx, / To troll it in a coach and six!
[…] I was wont to trowl down the nine-pins in the skittle-ground— […]
My ancestors drummed for King Harry, / The Huguenot lad of Navarre. / And as each man in life has his station / According as Fortune may fix, / While Condé was waving the baton, / My grandsire was trolling the sticks.
gloss: Senses relating to a rolling motion.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
gloss: Senses relating to a rolling motion.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Mrs Putler, this is Lady—Lady—these tamn'd Southern names rin out o' my head like a stane trowling down hill— […]
gloss: Senses relating to a rolling motion.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Prepoſt'rous foole, thou troul'ſt amiſſe: / Thou err'ſt; That's not the vvay, 'Tis this: / Thy hopes, inſtructed by thine Eye, / Make thee appeare more neare than I; […]
gloss: Senses relating to a rolling motion.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
slang
specifically
gloss: Senses relating to a rolling motion.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: This little ape gets money by the sack-full, / It trolls upon her.
gloss: Senses relating to the motion of passing around.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
transitive
examples: [Caliban] Thou mak'ſt me merry: I am full of pleaſure,
Let vs be iocond. VVill you troule the Catch
You taught me but vvhileare?
His Sonnets charm'd the attentive Crowd, / By wide-mouth'd Mortal troul'd aloud; […]
[S]he vvould be more vvelcome to thee than a Reprieve vvould, if thou vvert juſt novv trolling out Hopkins and Sternhold upon a Ladder.
But hark! our merry-men so gay / Troll forth another roundelay.
Good Snell, do thou a burthen try / Shall change our sadness into joy: / Such as thou trollest in blythe mood, / On days of sunshine in the wood.
Deck the hall with boughs of holly, / Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la! / 'Tis the season to be jolly: / Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la! / Fill the meadcup, drain the barrel, / Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la! / Troul the ancient Christmas carol. / Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
For where could a handsome young scholar not be welcome when he could touch the lute and troll a gay song?
[T]here is not a man but has his pulses shaken when Pan trolls out a stave of ecstasy and sets the world a-singing.
gloss: Senses relating to the motion of passing around.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: And Tyb my wyfe, that as her lyfe / loueth well good ale to ſeeke, / Full ofte drynkes ſhee, tyll ye may ſee / the teares run downe her cheekes: / Then dooth ſhe trowle, to mee the bowle / euen as a mault worme shuld, / And ſayth ſweete hart, I took my part / of this ioly good ale and olde.
Trowle the boll, the iolly Nut-browne boll, / And here kind mate to thee: / Let's ſing a dirge for Saint Hughes ſoule, / And downe it merrily.
Come, trowl the brown bowl to me, / Bully boy, bully boy, / Come, trowl the brown bowl to me: / Ho! jolly Jenkin, I spy a knave in drinking, / Come, trowl the brown bowl to me.
gloss: Senses relating to the motion of passing around.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
intransitive
gloss: Senses relating to the motion of passing around.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
intransitive
examples: The Greeks figured Pan, the god of Nature, now terribly stamping his foot, so that armies were dispersed; now by the woodside on a summer noon trolling on his pipe until he charmed the hearts of upland ploughmen.
[H]e trolled with ample lungs; and the sound of his voice took hold upon the hillside and set the air shaking in the leafy glens.
[H]e opened his stall and spread his meat upon the bench, then, taking his cleaver and steel and clattering them together, he trolled aloud in merry tones:— […]
Here Challander trolleth from the crucified vine; / The Ring-dove moaneth, chattereth the Stare; / The snowy Culver fast from nest doth fare / The Throstle percheth high on olive-tine: […]
gloss: Senses relating to the motion of passing around.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
intransitive
examples: I have had the moſt happy invention this morning, and a Tune trouling in my head; […]
Then he strolled away, an air from "The Grand Duchess" lightly trolling from his lips.
gloss: Senses relating to the motion of passing around.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: Novv the cups trole about to vvet the goſſips vvhiſtles / It poures dovvne I faith, they neuer thinke of payment.
Well can the green-garbed ranger tell, / How, when, and where, the monster fell; / […] / While round the merry wassel bowl, / Garnished with ribbons, blithe did trowl.
gloss: Senses relating to a light, quick motion.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: VVhat does hee elſe but cant? Or if he runne / To his Iudiciall Aſtrologie, / And trovvle the Trine, the Quartile and the Sextile, / […] / Does not he cant? VVho here does vnderſtand him?
But they [people from Pisa] speak well out, trolling the words clearly over the tongue.
gloss: Senses relating to a light, quick motion.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: [T]hat fair femal Troop […] / Bred onely and completed to the taſte / Of luſtful appetence, to ſing, to dance, / To dreſs, and troule the Tongue, and roule the Eye.
gloss: Senses relating to a light, quick motion.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Such ſhuld be our trollynges⸝ Chriſt vs ſo teacheth / Commaunding euer peace⸝ amonges vs for to be / Vntruly he trolleth⸝ that otherwyſe preacheth / Styreng to any ſedicion⸝ malyce or enuye
gloss: Senses relating to a light, quick motion.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: Fill him but a boule, it will make his tongue troule, / For flowing speech flows from a [pot of good ale].
His tongue troules like a Mill-clack: a towzes the Lady ſiſters, as a tumbling Dog does young Rabets; […]
gloss: Senses relating to fishing.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Chearful at morn he vvakes from ſhort repoſe, / Breaſts the keen air, and carrols as he goes; / VVith patient angle trolls the finny deep, / Or drives his vent'rous plovv-ſhare to the ſteep.
gloss: Senses relating to fishing.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: One while they courſing went / Upon the top of all the ſkie: anon againe full round / They troll me downe to lower wayes and nearer to the ground.
[M]y houſe is haunted / By a levvd packe of theeves, of harlots, murtherers, / Rogues, vagabonds, I foſter a decoy here, / And ſhe trovvles on her ragged cuſtomer, / To cut my throat for pillage.
It was necessary to troll them along two years with the hope of employing their usual methods, in order to get them to a place too far from their starting-point for retreat.
gloss: Senses relating to fishing.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: I, nor chuſe to bear / The thieviſh nightly net, not barbed ſpear: / Nor drain I ponds the golden carp to take, / Nor trovvle for pikes, diſpeoplers of the lake.
My flies alone disturbed the placid waters. A half-grown-up lad, who was standing behind me on the bank, advised me to "troll with bait"—a cluster of worms fastened to the hook, which is dragged in jerks over the surface of the water—and offered to find the bait for me.
gloss: Senses relating to fishing.
pos: verb
tags: Scotland
US
intransitive
examples: Their young men […] trolled along the brooks that abounded in fish.
gloss: Senses relating to "fishing" for a reaction.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
examples: Don't pay attention to that guy, he's always trolling this board.
When an argument gets heated, it can often be difficult to figure out who's serious and who's just trolling.
I trolled, and no one bit! [title]
There are plenty of commenters who disagree with me vehemently, and are also valued members of the community; if you find yourself unsure as to how to leave a comment without trolling, try asking yourself WWFD (What Would Freddie Do?). Remember, Smokey the Bear says, "Only you can prevent flame wars".
Russian Twitter and Facebook bots trolled both the left and the right with agitprop — in what appears to have been a general effort to deepen divisions and sow political chaos in America, not to favor one party or candidate over the other.
Could you be trolling and believe in it at the same time?
gloss: Senses relating to "fishing" for a reaction.
pos: verb
tags: broadly
examples: Many people have been trolling me due to my activism, but I don't let it get to me.
No one who spoke to Al Jazeera seemed surprised that 54 percent of girls had suffered some form of online harassment. […] Internet psychologist Graham Jones offers some explanations as to the mentality of people who troll online. In an email to Al Jazeera he explained that some forms of trolling could be unintentional.
Although many media outlets were being trolled by Chinese accounts well before 2020, "the main campaign appears to have picked up steam around mid-March as a loose network of Twitter accounts designed to mimic and harass Western media", according to the Institute's researchers Elise Thomas and Albert Zang.
Bullying tactics such as trolling are used to reinforce power dynamics and keep females quiet and complacent with timeworn traditions. And while I could spend hours typing up elaborate responses to each Tweet, I have only two words for men who try to use my religion to justify misogyny: "mute" and "block."
According to an investigation by Tortoise Media, which examined more than one million tweets, more than 50 per cent of anti-Heard messages in the run-up to the 2022 defamation case were "inauthentic" – either from automated "bot" accounts or people hired to attack the actress. ¶ They called her an "abuser", a "liar" and a "traitor", while proclaiming Depp's innocence of domestic abuse allegations. ¶ The Tortoise podcast, Who Trolled Amber?, alleges that a number of the accounts tweeted in Arabic and were full of praise for the Saudi regime or its ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
gloss: Senses relating to "fishing" for a reaction.
pos: verb
tags: broadly
colloquial
examples: The actress was widely trolled online after accidentally revealing that she didn't know the names of the continents.
This is lazy outrage bait. But I am biting anyway, because while Time could have trolled readers by calling a ban for the word on "feminist" any time, the magazine is considering it in a year when the conversation about the meaning of the term is as rich as it has been in some time–even if some of that conversation is being conducted through mass culture.
We like to troll, we like to go the night before one of their primaries, we just, we do a little trolling, it's called we do a little trolling.
Cristiano Ronaldo's dislike of dessert has been trolled by a former teammate. ¶ Ben Foster proudly showed off his apple crumble, having joked that he was skipping dessert.
Taylor Swift, who could've been crowned the queen of pranks in the early years of her career, is finding out what it feels like to be on the other side of a little onstage trolling.
Derived words: countertroll
hill-troll
trollbuddy
trollcard
troll cat
troll crab
trolless
trollette
troll-flower
troll-folk
trollicious
trollishness
trollitis
trollkind
trolllike
troll-like
trollsome
trollsona
trollsuit
trolltard
weretrolln
trollish
trollishly
backtroll
outtroll
self-trolling
trollage
trollee
troller
trollfic
trolling
untrolled
Translations:
lang: Arabic
word: طْرُول
roman: ṭrūl
lang: Azerbaijani
word: troll
lang: Belarusian
word: троль
roman: trolʹ
lang: Bengali
word: দানব
roman: danob
lang: Bulgarian
word: трол
roman: trol
lang: Catalan
word: trol
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 巨怪
roman: jùguài
lang: Czech
word: trol
lang: Czech
word: skřítek
lang: Danish
word: trold
lang: Dutch
word: trol
lang: Esperanto
word: trolo
lang: Estonian
word: troll
lang: Faroese
word: trøll
lang: Finnish
word: peikko
lang: French
word: troll
lang: Galician
word: trol
lang: Georgian
word: ტროლი
roman: ṭroli
lang: German
word: Troll
lang: Greek
word: τρολ
roman: trol
lang: Hebrew
word: טְרוֹל
roman: t'rol
lang: Hindi
word: ट्रोल
roman: ṭrol
lang: Hungarian
word: troll
lang: Icelandic
word: tröll
lang: Irish
word: troll
lang: Japanese
word: トロール
roman: torōru
lang: Korean
word: 트롤
roman: teurol
lang: Latin
word: trollum
lang: Macedonian
word: трол
roman: trol
lang: Marathi
word: ट्रोल
roman: ṭrol
lang: Norwegian
word: troll
lang: Old Norse
word: troll
lang: Polish
word: troll
lang: Portuguese
word: trol
lang: Portuguese
word: trole
lang: Romanian
word: trol
lang: Romanian
word: трол
roman: trol
lang: Russian
word: тролль
roman: trollʹ
lang: Northern Sami
word: stállu
lang: Scanian
word: trøll
lang: Scots
word: trowe
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: тро̑л
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: trȏl
lang: Spanish
word: trol
lang: Swedish
word: troll
lang: Thai
word: โทรลล์
roman: trool
lang: Thai
word: โทรล
roman: trool
lang: Turkish
word: trol
lang: Ukrainian
word: троль
roman: trolʹ
lang: Vietnamese
word: quỷ khổng lồ
lang: Welsh
word: ellyll
lang: Finnish
word: laulaa vuoroin
lang: Finnish
word: laulella
lang: Finnish
word: tokaista
lang: Estonian
word: kalastama
lang: Finnish
word: kalastaa
lang: Finnish
word: uistella