• (British) IPA: /tɹəʊl/, /tɹɒl/
• (America) IPA: /tɹoʊl/

troll (plural trolls)

1. (fantasy) A supernatural being of varying size, now especially a grotesque humanoid creature living in caves or hills or under bridges. [from early 17th c.]
2. (slang) An ugly person of either sex, especially one seeking sexual experiences.
3. (astronomy, meteorology) Optical ejections from the top of the electrically active core regions of thunderstorms that are red in color that seem to occur after tendrils of vigorous sprites extend downward toward the cloud tops.

• French: troll
• German: Troll
• Portuguese: troll
• Russian: тролль
• Spanish: trol

troll (trolls, present participle trolling; past and past participle trolled)

1. (intransitive) To saunter. [from late 14th c.]
2. (intransitive) To trundle, to roll from side to side. [from early 15th c.]
3. (transitive, figuratively) To draw someone or something out, to entice, to lure as if with trailing bait. [from the 1500s]
4. (intransitive, fishing, by extension) To fish using a line and bait or lures trailed behind a boat similarly to trawling; to lure fish with bait. [from circa 1600]

   • Their young men […] trolled along the brooks that abounded in fish.

5. (transitive) To angle for with a trolling line, or with a hook drawn along the surface of the water; hence, to allure.
6. (transitive) To fish in; to try to catch fish from.

   • With patient angle trolls the finny deep.

7. (slang, intransitive) To stroll about in order to find a sexual partner. [from 20th c.]

   Synonyms: cruise

   He spends most of his waking hours trolling on WIRE.

8. (intransitive, internet slang) (to post inflammatory material so as) to attempt to lure others into combative argument for purposes of personal entertainment and/or gratuitous disruption, especially in an online community or discussion [from late 20th c.]
   • 1993 October 11, “danny burstein” (username), “I trolled, and no one bit! ↗”, in alt.folklore.urban, Usenet
9. (transitive, internet slang) By extension, to incite anger (including outside of an Internet context); to provoke, harass or annoy.
   • 1994 March 8, “Robert Royar” (username), “OK, here's more on trolling ↗”, in comp.edu.composition, Usenet:

     trolling isn't aimed at newbies. It's aimed at self-important people

• French: troller
• German: trollen
• Italian: trollare
• Portuguese: trolar
• Russian: тро́ллить
• Spanish: trolear

• French: troller
• German: trollen
• Portuguese: trolar, trollar
• Spanish: trolear

troll (plural trolls)

1. An instance of trolling, especially, in fishing, the trailing of a baited line. [from circa 1600]
2. (colloquial, internet slang) A person who provokes others (chiefly on the Internet) for their own personal amusement or to cause disruption. [from late 20th c.]

   cot en

• German: Troll
• Spanish: trol

• Portuguese: trolagem
• Russian: тро́ллинг

• French: troll
• German: Troll
• Italian: troll
• Portuguese: troll
• Russian: тролль
• Spanish: trol

troll (trolls, present participle trolling; past and past participle trolled)

1. (transitive, intransitive, obsolete) To move circularly; to roll; to turn. [from the 15th c.]
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 10”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     Of lustful apperence, to sing, to dance,
     To dress, and troule the Tongue, and roule the Eye.

2. (transitive, obsolete) To send about; to circulate, as a vessel in drinking.

   • Then doth she troll to the bowl.

   • 1820, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. [...] In Three Volumes, volume (please specify ), Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], OCLC 230694662 ↗:

3. (transitive, intransitive, archaic) To sing the parts of in succession, as of a round, a catch, and the like; also, to sing loudly, freely or in a carefree way. [from the 16th c.]
   • circa 1610-11 William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act III scene ii:

     […] Will you troll the catch / You taught me but whilere?

   • His sonnets charmed the attentive crowd, / By wide-mouthed mortal trolled aloud.

   • 1883, Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Chapter V

     Next, he 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: […]

troll (plural trolls)

1. The act of moving round; routine; repetition.
2. A song whose parts are sung in succession; a catch; a round.

   • Thence the catch and troll, while "Laughter, holding both his sides," sheds tears to song and ballad pathetic on the woes of married life.

3. (obsolete) A trolley.

1. (slang) a native or resident of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan