Troubled

//ˈtɹʌbl̩d// adj, verb

adj, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    simple past and past participle of trouble form-of, participle, past
Adjective
  1. 1
    Anxious, worried, careworn.

    "Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen."

  2. 2
    Afflicted by difficulties.

    "The troubled Internet company announced another round of layoffs last week."

Adjective
  1. 1
    characterized by unrest or disorder or insubordination wordnet
  2. 2
    characterized by or indicative of distress or affliction or danger or need wordnet

Example

More examples

"Are you trying to fish in troubled waters?"

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.