1851,Benjamin Thorpe, “Norwegian Traditions.[The Girl at the Sæter.]”, inNorthern Mythology,[…], volumes II (Scandinavian Popular Traditions and Superstitions), London: Edward Lumley,[…],→OCLC,page 7:
He followed their advice, and rode through a rye-field, where theTrolls 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 byTrolls,—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 thetrolls 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. Thetrolls had to clear out at last, but Peter stayed and enjoyed himself with all the Christmas fare the whole week. After that thetrolls were not heard of there for many years.
In these manuscripts we are again in an atmosphere of eotens andtrolls, 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.
The way Torchie had talked about him, I expected him to be some kind oftroll. 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 atroll." / "Troll? Impossible. I'm wearing beige and do I look like atroll?" / "Since you asked—"
2012 August 29, James Classi, “Round Three”, inHeatseeker, Bloomington, Ind.:AuthorHouse,→ISBN,page26:
Edwin Baer was an uglytroll of a man. He stood just about five feet, six inches and maybe weighed 140 pounds soaking wet.
2022 May 18, Steven Lee Myers, “A Panel to Combat Disinformation Becomes a Victim of It”, inThe New York Times[1]:
As the board’s director, Ms. Jankowicz, 33, bore the brunt of the attacks, a subject she knows well. Her most recent book, called “How to Be a Woman Online,” chronicles abuses she and other women face fromtrolls and other malign actors on the internet.
Theverb is derived fromMiddle Englishtrollen(“to go about, wander; to move (something) to and fro, rock; to roll; to turn”)[and other forms],[3] of uncertain origin; perhaps in part fromOld Frenchtroller(“to run here and there; to walk aimlessly, ramble, stroll; (hunting) to wander about looking for game”) (modernFrenchtroller); further etymology uncertain, yet probably from or related toMiddle High Germantrollen(“to stroll, walk with short strides”) (modernGermantrollen(“to move slowly, trundle; to push off, toddle off”)),[4] ultimately fromProto-Germanic*truzlōną(“to lumber”), which is probably related to*trudaną(“to step on, tread”) (see further atetymology 1).Doublet oftrull.
Thenoun is probably derived from the verb. Nounetymology 2 sense 4 (“person who makes or posts inflammatory or insincere statements in an attempt to lure others into combative argument”) is possibly influenced bytroll (etymology 1).[5]
1878,Thomas Tusser, “A Briefe Conclusion, where You may See, ech Word in the Verse, to Begin with a T”, inFive Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie.[…], London: Published for theEnglish Dialect Society byTrübner & Co.,[…],→OCLC; republished as W[illiam] Payne, Sidney J[ohn Hervon] Herrtage, editors,Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie.[…], London: Published for theEnglish Dialect Society byTrübner & Co.,[…],1878,→OCLC, stanza 2,page137:
Take trustie (to trust to) that thinkest to thee, / That trustily thriftinestrowleth to thee.
[…] I was wont totrowl down the nine-pins in the skittle-ground—[…]
1841, M. A. Titmarsh [pseudonym;William Makepeace Thackeray], “The Chronicle of the Drum. Part I.”, inThe Second Funeral ofNapoleon:[…] And The Chronicle of the Drum.[…], London: Hugh Cunningham,[…],→OCLC,page88:
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 wastrolling the sticks.
Prepoſt'rous foole, thoutroul'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;[…]
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!
c.1553 (date written), “S.” [pseudonym; attributed toWilliam Stevenson],[…] Gammer Gurtons Nedle:[…], London:[…] Thomas Colwell, published1575,→OCLC, Act II, scene i,signature B, verso:
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 ſhetrowle, 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.
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.
(music,archaic) Of a person: tosing the parts of acatch,round, or similar song in succession; also(generally), to sing freely or in a carefree way, or loudly.
The Greeks figuredPan, the god of Nature, now terribly stamping his foot, so that armies were dispersed; now by the woodside on a summer noontrolling on his pipe until he charmed the hearts of upland ploughmen.
[H]e opened his stall and spread his meat upon the bench, then, taking his cleaver and steel and clattering them together, hetrolled aloud in merry tones:—[…]
Here Challandertrolleth 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:[…]
(music,archaic) Of a song: to be sung freely or in a carefree way, or loudly; also, of atune: to beconstantly in someone'smind.
I have had the moſt happy invention this morning, and a Tunetrouling in my head;[…]
1890,J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, “The Murder in the Inn”, inMy Lady Nicotine: A Study in Smoke, Boston, Mass.: Joseph Knight Company, published1896,→OCLC,pages248–249:
Then he strolled away, an air from "The Grand Duchess" lightlytrolling from his lips.
(obsolete) Of a bowl or other communal drinking vessel, or thedrink inside it: to be passed around from one person to another.
Well can the green-garbed ranger tell, / How, when, and where, the monster fell; /[…] / While round the merry wassel bowl, / Garnished with ribbons, blithe didtrowl.
VVhat does hee elſe butcant? Or if he runne / To his IudiciallAſtrologie, / Andtrovvle theTrine, theQuartile and theSextile, /[…] / Does not hecant? VVho here does vnderſtand him?
1667,John Milton, “Book X”, inParadise Lost.[…], London:[…] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker[…];[a]nd by Robert Boulter[…];[a]nd Matthias Walker,[…],→OCLC; republished asParadise Lost in Ten Books:[…], London: Basil Montagu Pickering[…],1873,→OCLC, lines610 and 614–616:
[T]hat fair femal Troop[…] / Bred onely and completed to the taſte / Of luſtful appetence, to ſing, to dance, / To dreſs, andtroule the Tongue, and roule the Eye.
Such ſhuld be our trollynges⸝Chriſt vs ſo teacheth / Commaunding euer peace⸝ amonges vs for to be / Vntruly hetrolleth⸝ that otherwyſe preacheth / Styreng to any ſedicion⸝ malyce or enuye
(obsolete) To move lightly and quickly; especially of the tongue when speaking; towag.
Chearful at morn he vvakes from ſhort repoſe, / Breaſts the keen air, and carrols as he goes; / VVith patient angletrolls the finny deep, / Or drives his vent'rous plovv-ſhare to the ſteep.
[M]y houſe is haunted / By a levvd packe of theeves, of harlots, murtherers, / Rogues, vagabonds, I foſter a decoy here, / And ſhetrovvles on her ragged cuſtomer, / To cut my throat for pillage.
1906,Thomas William Lawson, “Fools and Their Money: Some After-claps of Frenzied Finance”, inEverybody’s Magazine, volume XIV, number 5, New York, N.Y.: North American Company,→OCLC, page690:
It was necessary totroll 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.
I, nor chuſe to bear / The thieviſh nightly net, not barbed ſpear: / Nor drain I ponds the golden carp to take, / Nortrovvle 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.
1834–1874,George Bancroft,History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume(please specify |volume=I to X), Boston, Mass.:Little, Brown and Company [et al.],→OCLC:
Their young men[…]trolled along the brooks that abounded in fish.
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 withouttrolling, try asking yourself WWFD (What Would Freddie Do?). Remember, Smokey the Bear says, "Only you can prevent flame wars".
Russian Twitter and Facebook botstrolled 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 betrolling and believe in it at the same time?
(by extension) To persistentlyharass someone over theInternet.
Many people have beentrolling me due to my activism, but I don't let it get to me.
2013 December 24, Philippa H Stewart, “Online feminists are taking on the trolls”, inAl Jazeera English[5], archived fromthe original on23 January 2021:
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 whotroll online. In an email to Al Jazeera he explained that some forms oftrolling could be unintentional.
Although many media outlets were beingtrolled 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.
2021 November 8, Hafsa Lodi, “I was trolled by pro-Taliban extremists after writing about Muslim feminism”, inBusiness Insider[7], New York, N.Y.:Insider Inc.,→OCLC, archived fromthe original on7 April 2024:
Bullying tactics such astrolling 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, WhoTrolled 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.
This is lazy outrage bait. But I am biting anyway, because while Time could havetrolled 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.
2020 March 2,Donald Trump,President Trump Rally in Charlotte, North Carolina[10], viaC-SPAN:
We like totroll, we like to go the night before one of their primaries, we just, wedo a littletrolling, it's called we do a littletrolling.
2021 September 22, Sam Cooper, “An old teammate of Cristiano Ronaldo's trolled his dislike of dessert by scoffing a giant pudding on his YouTube channel”, inBusiness Insider[11], New York, N.Y.:Insider Inc.,→OCLC, archived fromthe original on7 April 2024:
Cristiano Ronaldo's dislike of dessert has beentrolled by a former teammate. ¶ Ben Foster proudly showed off his apple crumble, having joked that he was skipping dessert.
2024 March 11, Sammi Burke, “See One of Taylor Swift's Dancers Troll Her on Stage During '22'”, inParade[12], New York, N.Y.: The Arena Group,→OCLC, archived fromthe original on7 April 2024:
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 onstagetrolling.
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.[…] Thetroll of their categorical table might have informed them that there vvas ſomething elſe in the intellectual vvorld beſidesſubſtance andquantity.
A fishing line, bait, or lure used to fish in theseways.
(figurative, originally Internetslang) An inflammatory or insincere statement posted in an attempt to lure others into combative argument (aflame war), originally a way forregulars (long-time users) to poke light-hearted fun at new posters (especially inUsenetnewsgroups) and promote in-group cohesion ("trolling fornewbies").
Katie Hopkins: My Fat Story 9pm, TLC The professionaltroll and one-timeApprentice stirrer piles on the pounds in order to shed them in this two-part doc, which feels at times like an overly longThis Morning item.
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 there, attacking people head-on—though almost always cloaked in anonymity—wasn't a big leap. And so much more on the internet became like a game, only the score consisted of attention, outrage or approval from like-mindedtrolls.
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 or of women who had been beaten. If anyone bothered to look, Reddit was proof that on the internet, thetrolls were in charge.
But [US Vice President J.D.] Vance has his own agenda, and he poorly served his president in service to it. What is his agenda? To be America’s foremosttroll.
2025 May 29, Miranda Jeyaretnam and Chad de Guzman, “From MAHA to TACO—A Guide to the Acronyms of Trump’s Second Term”, inTIME[16]:
Amid a dispute over deportations with Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro in January, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform an AI-generated image of himself wearing a fedora with the letters FAFO in red on a sign next to him. “This is awesome,” Musk said, resharing the image on X. Trump had previously reshared a post by right-wing internettroll that said “5 days until FAFO” alongside an image of Trump, on Jan. 15, five days before Trump’s second-term inauguration.
2019 November 19, Shashank Bengali, Evan Halper, “Troll armies, a growth industry in the Philippines, may soon be coming to an election near you”, inLos Angeles Times[17], Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications,→ISSN,→OCLC, archived fromthe original on9 May 2023:
Already, U.S. operatives in both parties have made early efforts at usingtrolls for political gain. Rogue progressives stealthily launched fake social media campaigns againstRoy Moore, the GOP nominee for Senate in Alabama, during a 2017 special election. Their campaign aimed to confuse voters into thinking Moore supported banning alcohol and that Russian bots were working on his behalf.
Social media accounts tied to a group of Russiantrolls 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 fromtrolls operating on behalf of the Saudi government to create a false sense of popular dissatisfaction.
And, perhaps unsurprisingly, pro-war Chinesetrolls denounced the authors – who are based in Nanjing, Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai – as "shameful" and "traitorous". "Why did you not say anything during the west's invasion in Iraq," one quipped sarcastically.
2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting: The president proposes a new round of intellectual-property reform”, inThe Economist[21], volume407, number8839, London:The Economist Group,→ISSN,→OCLC, archived fromthe original on16 October 2022, page55:
The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight.Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patenttroll.
At the opening of every club night he is called in to sing his "Confession of Faith," which is the famous old drinkingtrowl from Gammer Gurton's needle.
And thence the catch andtroll, 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."
(colloquial,derogatory,Internetslang)troll(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; also, such a statement)
According toRoyal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.
Manuel Seco; Olimpia Andrés; Gabino Ramos (3 August 2023), “troll”, inDiccionario del español actual [Dictionary of Current Spanish] (in Spanish), third digital edition, Fundación BBVA [BBVA Foundation]
Då vilar min blommande ö vid din barm, du dunkelblå, vindstillafjärd. Och julinattsskymningen smyger sig varm till sovande buskar och träd. Min älva, du dansar så lyssnande tyst och tänker att karlar ärtroll. Den skälver, din barnsliga hand som jag kysst, och valsen förklingar i moll.
Then my blossoming island rests [then rests my blossoming island] on your bosom, you dark blue, still ["windstill," currently windless] archipelago / bay. And the dusk of the July night sneaks, warm, to sleeping bushes and trees. My fairy [or "elf," but withdifferent connotations], you dance so quietly, listening ["listeningly quiet"], and think to yourself [to avoid the ambiguity of just "think" here in English] that men aretrolls. It trembles, your childish hand that I have kissed, and the waltz fades away in minor [key].
Närtrollmor har lagt sina elva småtroll och bundit fast dom i svansen, då sjunger hon sakta för[de] elva småtrollen de vackraste ord hon känner: ho aj aj aj aj buff, ho aj aj aj aj buff, ho aj aj aj aj buff, buff, ho aj aj aj aj buff.
When mothertroll has put her eleven littletrolls to bed and tied them up by their tails [the tail], then she slowly sings tothe eleven littletrolls the most beautiful words she knows: ho ay ay ay ay buff, ho ay ay ay ay buff, ho ay ay ay ay buff, buff, ho ay ay ay ay buff.
Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828), William Barnes, editor,A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published1867,page73
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, September 2023;“troll1,n.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
troll on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
