troubled, ppl. a.
(ˈtrʌb(ə)ld)
[f. prec. + -ed1.]
1. Physically agitated; of the sea, sky, etc., stormy; of water, wine, etc., stirred up so as to diffuse the sediment, made thick or muddy, turbid.
troubled waters (fig.), a state of agitation or disquiet.
| 1388 Wyclif Josh. xiii. 2 The troblid flood that moistith Egipt. 1581 J. Walker in Confer. iv. (1584) F f iij, It is troubled water when we mingle our workes and righteousnes with Gods. 1611 Bible Isa. lvii. 20 The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast vp myre and dirt. 1632 Lithgow Trav. i. 12 The Riuer Tyber [is] of a troubled and muddy colour. 1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 334 Jargon... Heated to redness, and quenched in water, it becomes rifty, and troubled. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xx. IV. 535 The sky was dark and troubled. 1864 G. M. Musgrave Ten Days Fr. Parsonage II. iii. 98 An inadvertent inquiry would have brought us into troubled waters. |
2. Disturbed; disquieted; disordered; agitated; afflicted. Also absol.
| a 1325 Prose Psalter l. 18 [li. 17] Trubled gost is sacrifice to God. c 1450 J. Capgrave Life St. Aug. xv. 21 Augustine with a troubled mynde be-gan to loke up-on his felaw Alipius, and..cried: What suffir we? 1535 Coverdale 2 Esdras xv. 8 The innocent bloude of the troubled crieth vnto me. 1611 Beaum. & Fl. Philaster iii. i, Medicine for a troubled mind. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxiii. 126 Some private partie of a troubled State. 1728 Eliza Heywood tr. Mme de Gomez's Belle A. (1734) II. 31 Philosophy could give his troubled Thoughts but little ease. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 127 The historian of this troubled reign. 1885 ‘Mrs. Alexander’ At Bay vii, I wandered about the old scenes like a troubled ghost. 1894 Hall Caine Manxman iii. xxi, She slept a troubled sleep. |