troll

Word family

Related topics: Folklore

1. RFan imaginary creature in stories that looks like an ugly person 〔传说中长相丑陋的〕怪物

n2. someone who leaves offensive or upsetting messages on the Internet, just in order to get a reaction

Examples from the Corpus

troll• There was now, for example, a five-metre tall mountain troll standing in the road.• There were also some senior dwarfs from Copperhead and, standing well away from them, a group of trolls.• They are the trolls lurking beneath the jerry-built bridges that businesses and agencies view as shortcuts to high performance.• He drew his sword and, with a smooth overarm throw, completely failed to hit the troll.• The troll again asked his question and learned that an even bigger goat would soon cross his bridge.• The troll thought that was sensible, so he waited.

troll2 verb [intransitiveI, transitiveT]

1 American EnglishAmE to try to remove something from a river, ocean etc by pulling a rope, line etc through the water 拖捞；拖钓

Ships towing huge magnets trolled the ocean floor.

船只拖着巨大的磁石在海底进行拖捞作业。

troll for

I would troll for fish from the rowboat.

我会在划艇上拖钓。

2 American EnglishAmE to try to obtain something by searching, asking people etc 搜寻；询问 SYN British English trawl

troll (something) for something

Stewart spent hours trolling the Web for information.

斯图尔特花了很长时间在网上搜索信息。

n3. to leave offensive or upsetting messages on the Internet, just in order to get a reaction

Examples from the Corpus

troll• It's certainly true that both will now troll for votes in the same middle waters.

Origin troll

(1600-1700) Norwegian troll and Danish trold, from Old Norse troll “evil creature, giant”

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Chinese

Corpus