/tɹɒl/, /tɹəʊl/, /tɹɑl/
OriginA term coined by Yoopers to refer to residents of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, because trolls live "under the bridge" (referring to the Mackinac Bridge).
- European, alsoa giant supernatural being, especially a grotesque humanoid creature living in caves or hills or under bridges.
“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! ”
“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”
“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 ”
- broadlyAn 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.
- broadly, informalA 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.
“People from the Upper Peninsula—the UP, or the Yoop—some-times call citizens of northern Michigan trolls, because they live “below the bridge.””
- An act of moving round; a repetition, a routine.
“They [legislators] reduce men to looſe counters merely for the ſake of ſimple telling, and not to figures vvhoſe povver is to ariſe from their place in the table. […] The troll of their categorical ta”
- An act of fishing by using a running fishing line, or by trailing a line with bait or lures behind a boat.
- A fishing line, bait, or lure used to fish in these ways.
- figurativelyAn inflammatory or insincere statement posted in an attempt to lure others into combative argument (a flame war), originally a way for regulars (long-time users) to poke light-hearted fun at new posters (especially in Usenet newsgroups) and promote in-group cohesion ("trolling for newbies").
- broadlyA person who makes or posts inflammatory or insincere statements in an attempt to lure others into combative argument for purposes of personal entertainment or to manipulate their perception, especially in an online community or discussion.
“Katie Hopkins: My Fat Story 9pm, TLC The professional troll and one-time Apprentice stirrer piles on the pounds in order to shed them in this two-part doc, which feels at times like an overly long Thi”
“That tendency to overdo it became visible as the worst kind of trolling on the internet about a decade ago, when griefers exported their habits from the gaming world into the larger world. […] From th”
“It was the place you went, shrouded in anonymity, for pornography, hard-core racism, revenge porn, Nazi cheerleading, Jew-baiting, creepshots, fat-shaming, mindless anarchy and pictures of dead kids o”
- broadlyA person who sows discord, or spreads misinformation or propaganda, in order to promote an agenda as part of an organized political campaign.
“Already, U.S. operatives in both parties have made early efforts at using trolls for political gain. Rogue progressives stealthily launched fake social media campaigns against Roy Moore, the GOP nomin”
“Social media accounts tied to a group of Russian trolls are amplifying claims of election fraud, according to researchers at the Election Integrity Partnership, a coalition of misinformation experts.”
“"The Dissident" saw as many as 500 low audience scores, out of just 2,400, flood the popular film-rating site Rotten Tomatoes on Jan. 12, filmmakers said, an act they believe came from trolls operatin”
- A song the parts of which are sung in succession; a catch, a round.
“At the opening of every club night he is called in to sing his "Confession of Faith," which is the famous old drinking trowl from Gammer Gurton's needle.”
“And thence the catch and troll, while "laughter, holding both his sides" sheds tears to song and ballad pathetic on the woes of married life, and all the ills that "our flesh is heir to."”
- obsoleteA small wheel; specifically (fishing), the reel or winch of a fishing line.
- dialectal, obsoleteA trolley.
- transitiveTo move (something, especially a round object) by, or as if by, rolling; to bowl, to roll, to trundle.
“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!”
- obsolete, transitiveOften followed by in: to cause (something) to flow or roll in like a stream.
- intransitiveTo roll; also, to turn round and round; to rotate, to spin, to whirl.
“Mrs Putler, this is Lady—Lady—these tamn'd Southern names rin out o' my head like a stane trowling down hill— […]”
- intransitiveTo move or walk at a leisurely pace; to ramble, to saunter, to stroll.
“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; […]”
- intransitive, slang, specificallyChiefly of a man: synonym of cruise (“to stroll about to find a (male) sexual partner”).
- intransitive, obsoleteFollowed by in: to flow or roll in like a stream.
“This little ape gets money by the sack-full, / It trolls upon her.”
- archaic, transitiveTo sing the parts of (a catch, round, or similar song) in succession; also (generally), to sing (a song) freely or in a carefree way, or loudly.
“[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.”
- obsolete, transitiveTo pass (something, specifically a bowl or other communal drinking vessel) from one person to another; to circulate, to send about.
“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 m”
“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.”
- archaic, intransitiveOf bells: to ring a sequence of tones in a resounding manner.
- archaic, intransitiveOf a person: to sing the parts of a catch, round, or similar song in succession; also (generally), to sing freely or in a carefree way, or loudly.
“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 uplan”
“[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:— […]”
- archaic, intransitiveOf a song: to be sung freely or in a carefree way, or loudly; also, of a tune: to be constantly in someone's mind.
“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.”
- intransitive, obsoleteOf a bowl or other communal drinking vessel, or the drink inside it: to be passed around from one person to another.
“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.”
- transitiveTo say (something) lightly and quickly, or in a deep, resounding voice.
“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.”
- obsolete, transitiveTo move (the tongue) lightly and quickly when speaking.
“[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.”
- intransitiveTo speak lightly and quickly, or in a deep, resounding voice.
“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”
- intransitive, obsoleteTo move lightly and quickly; especially of the tongue when speaking; to wag.
“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; […]”
- transitiveTo fish in (a place) using a running fishing line (that is, a line with a hook on the end which is drawn along the water surface, possibly a line which would originally have been spooled on to a troll (etymology 2, noun etymology 2 sense 8.1)).
“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.”
- figuratively, transitiveTo attract or draw out (someone or something); to allure, to elicit, to entice, to lure.
“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.”
- intransitiveTo fish using a running fishing line.
“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 je”
- Scotland, US, intransitiveTo fish using a line and bait or lures trailed behind a boat similarly to trawling.
“Their young men […] trolled along the brooks that abounded in fish.”
- figurativelyTo post irrelevant or inflammatory statements in an online discussion in an attempt to start a heated argument or to derail a conversation, either for one's personal entertainment or as part of an organized political campaign.
“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]”
- broadlyTo persistently harass someone over the Internet.
“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 mentalit”
“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”
- broadly, colloquialTo prank, tease, or mess with someone in a lighthearted way.
“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”
“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.”
- slanga native or resident of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan
Formstrolls(plural) · trolls(present, singular, third-person) · trolling(participle, present) · trolled(participle, past) · trolled(past) · troll(infinitive) · troll(first-person, present, singular) · trolled(first-person, past, singular) · troll(present, second-person, singular) · trollest(archaic, present, second-person, singular) · trolled(past, second-person, singular) · trolledst(archaic, past, second-person, singular) · trolleth(archaic, present, singular, third-person) · trolled(past, singular, third-person) · troll(plural, present) · trolled(past, plural) · troll(present, subjunctive) · trolled(past, subjunctive) · troll(imperative, present) · -(imperative, past)