different between trouble vs bully

English

Etymology

Verb is from Middle English troublen, trublen, turblen, troblen, borrowed from Old French troubler, trobler, trubler, metathetic variants of tourbler, torbler, turbler, from Vulgar Latin *turbul?re, from Latin turbula (“disorderly group, a little crowd or people”), diminutive of turba (“stir; crowd”). The noun is from Middle English truble, troble, from Old French troble, from the verb.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: tr?b??l; IPA^(key): /?t??b(?)l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?t??b(?)l/, /?t??-/
• Rhymes: -?b?l
• Hyphenation: trou?ble

Noun

trouble (countable and uncountable, plural troubles)

1. A distressing or dangerous situation.

2. A difficulty, problem, condition, or action contributing to such a situation.

3. A violent occurrence or event.

4. Efforts taken or expended, typically beyond the normal required.
   • 1850, William Cullen Bryant, Letters of a Traveller

     She never took the trouble to close them.

   • 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque:

     Indeed, by the report of our elders, this nervous preparation for old age is only trouble thrown away.

5. A malfunction.

6. Liability to punishment; conflict with authority.

7. (mining) A fault or interruption in a stratum.
8. (Cockney rhyming slang) Wife. Clipping of trouble and strife.

Usage notes

• Verbs often used with "trouble": make, spell, stir up, ask for, etc.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:difficult situation

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take for uses and meaning of trouble collocated with these words.

Verb

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

1. (transitive, now rare) To disturb, stir up, agitate (a medium, especially water).
2. (transitive) To mentally distress; to cause (someone) to be anxious or perplexed.

   What she said about narcissism is troubling me.
3. (transitive) In weaker sense: to bother or inconvenience.

   I will not trouble you to deliver the letter.

4. (reflexive or intransitive) To take pains to do something.

   I won't trouble to post the letter today; I can do it tomorrow.

5. (intransitive) To worry; to be anxious.
   • 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.26:

     Why trouble about the future? It is wholly uncertain.

Related terms

• turbid
• turbulent

Translations

Further reading

• trouble in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• trouble in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• -buterol, Boulter, boulter

French

Etymology 1

Deverbal of troubler or from Old French troble.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?ubl/

Noun

trouble m (plural troubles)

1. trouble
2. (medicine) disorder

Derived terms

• trouble de la personnalité
• trouble obsessionnel compulsif

Verb

trouble

1. first-person singular present indicative of troubler
2. third-person singular present indicative of troubler
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of troubler
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of troubler
5. second-person singular imperative of troubler

Etymology 2

From Old French troble, probably from a Vulgar Latin *turbulus (with metathesis), itself perhaps an alteration of Latin turbidus with influence from turbulentus; cf. also turbula. Compare Catalan tèrbol, Romanian tulbure.

Adjective

trouble (plural troubles)

1. (of a liquid) murky, turbid, muddy, thick, clouded, cloudy; not clear

Derived terms

• pêcher en eau trouble

Further reading

• “trouble” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

From 1530, as a term of endearment, probably a diminutive ( +? -y) of Dutch boel (“lover; brother”), from Middle Dutch boel, boele (“brother; lover”), from Old Dutch *buolo, from Proto-Germanic *b?lô (compare Middle Low German bôle (“brother”), Middle High German buole (“brother; close relative; close relation”) (whence German Buhle (“lover”)), Old English B?la, B?lla (personal name), diminutive of expressive *b?- (“brother, father”). Compare also Latvian b?linš (“brother”). More at boy.

The term acquired negative senses during the 17th century; first ‘noisy, blustering fellow’ then ‘a person who is cruel to others’. Possibly influenced by bull (“male cattle”) or via the ‘prostitute's minder’ sense. The positive senses are dated, but survive in phrases such as bully pulpit.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?b?li/
• Rhymes: -?li

Noun

bully (countable and uncountable, plural bullies)

1. A person who is intentionally physically or emotionally cruel to others, especially to those who are weaker or have less power or privilege. [from late 17th c.]

2. A noisy, blustering, tyrannical person, more insolent than courageous; one who is threatening and quarrelsome.
3. A hired thug.
   • 1849, John McLean, Notes of a Twenty-Five Years' Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory, pp. 42-3:

     Mr. Fisher returned from town... he had learnt that our opponents intended to shift the scene of operations to the Chats... We understood that they had hired two bullies for the purpose of deciding the matter par voie de fait. Mr Fisher hired two of the same description, who were supposed to be more than a match for the opposition party.

   Synonyms: henchman, thug

4. A sex worker’s minder.

   Synonyms: pimp; see also Thesaurus:pimp

   • 2009, Dan Cruikshank, Secret History of Georgian London, Random House, p. 473:

     The Proclamation Society and the Society for the Suppression of Vice were more concerned with obscene literature […] than with hands-on street battles with prostitutes and their bullies […].

5. (uncountable) Bully beef.
6. (obsolete) A brisk, dashing fellow.
7. The small scrum in the Eton College field game.
8. Various small freshwater or brackishwater fish of the family Eleotridae; sleeper goby.
9. (obsolete or dialectal, Ireland and Northern England) An (eldest) brother; a fellow workman; comrade
10. (dialectal) A companion; mate (male or female).

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:friend

11. (obsolete) A darling, sweetheart (male or female).

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:sweetheart
12. (field hockey) A standoff between two players from the opposing teams, who repeatedly hit each other's hockey sticks and then attempt to acquire the ball, as a method of resuming the game in certain circumstances. Also called bully-off.
13. (mining) A miner's hammer.

Translations

Verb

bully (third-person singular simple present bullies, present participle bullying, simple past and past participle bullied)

1. (transitive) To intimidate (someone) as a bully.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:intimidate

2. (transitive) To act aggressively towards.

   Synonyms: push around, ride roughshod over

Translations

Adjective

bully (comparative bullier, superlative bulliest)

1. (US, slang) Very good.

   Synonyms: excellent; see also Thesaurus:excellent

   • 1916, The Independent (volumes 35-36, page 6)

     She is a bully woman, not only a good mother, but a wonderful in-law

2. (slang, obsolete) Jovial and blustering.

   Synonym: dashing

   • 1597, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor Act II, scene iii:

Derived terms

• bully boy
• bully pulpit

Translations

Interjection

bully

1. (often followed by for) Well done!

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:well done

Translations

Further reading

• bully on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English bully, itself a derivation of Dutch boel (“lover; brother”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?bu.li/
• Hyphenation: bul?ly

Noun

bully m (plural bully's)

1. (field hockey) bully (way of resuming the game with a standoff between two opposing players who repeatedly hit each other's sticks, then try to gain possession of the ball)

Spanish

Noun

bully m (plural bullys or bullies or bully)

1. bully