Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Troll

Troll (trōl), n. [Icel. troll. Cf. Droll, Trull.] (Scand. Myth.) A supernatural being, often represented as of diminutive size, but sometimes as a giant, and fabled to inhabit caves, hills, and like places; a witch.

Troll flower. (Bot.) Same as Globeflower (a).

Troll (trōl), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Trolled; p. pr. & vb. n. Trolling.] [OE. trollen to roll, F. trôler, Of. troller to drag about, to ramble; probably of Teutonic origin; cf. G. trollen to roll, ramble, sich trollen to be gone; or perhaps for trotler, fr. F. trotter to trot (cf. Trot.). Cf. Trawl.] 1. To move circularly or volubly; to roll; to turn.

To dress and troll the tongue, and roll the eye. Milton.

2. To send about; to circulate, as a vessel in drinking.

Then doth she troll to the bowl. Gammer Gurton's Needle.

Troll the brown bowl. Sir W. Scott.

3. To sing the parts of in succession, as of a round, a catch, and the like; also, to sing loudly or freely.

Will you troll the catch ? Shak.

His sonnets charmed the attentive crowd, By wide-mouthed mortaltrolled aloud. Hudibras.

4. To angle for with a trolling line, or with a book drawn along the surface of the water; hence, to allure.

5. To fish in; to seek to catch fish from.

With patient angle trolls the finny deep. Goldsmith.

Troll, v. i. 1. To roll; to run about; to move around; as, to troll in a coach and six.

2. To move rapidly; to wag. F. Beaumont.

3. To take part in trolling a song.

4. To fish with a rod whose line runs on a reel; also, to fish by drawing the hook through the water.

Their young men . . . trolled along the brooks that abounded in fish. Bancroft.

Troll, n. 1. The act of moving round; routine; repetition. Burke.

2. A song the parts of which 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. Prof. Wilson.

3. A trolley.

Troll plate (Mach.), a rotative disk with spiral ribs or grooves, by which several pieces, as the jaws of a chuck, can be brought together or spread radially.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.