arch. and dial. Forms: 4–5 trolle, 6 trol, 6–7 trole, 6– troll; 5–9 trowl, 6–7 trowle, troule, 6–8 troul; 5–9 trull, (5 trulle); 8–9 Sc. trow. [A word or series of words of uncertain origin, and of which all the senses do not go closely together. It is generally derived from OF. troller, a hunting term, ‘to quest, to go in quest of game, without purpose,’ of which Godefroy has one instance. This survives in mod. French (see Littré). Godefroy has also one example of traller, in Littré trôler ‘to lead or walk in all directions indiscriminately, to run here and there, to run about, ramble.’ These may well be the same word, and trôler is by many referred to Ger. trollen ‘to roll,’ though the senses are not the same. Both senses are found in English, but the word has also other senses not found in German or French.)
I. † 1. intr. To move or walk about or to and fro; to ramble, saunter, stroll, ‘roll.’ Obs.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XVIII. 296. And þus hath he trolled [v.r. tollid] forth þis two & thretty wynter. [1561: see 15 b.]
1691. trans. Emilianne’s Frauds Rom. Monks (ed. 3), 107. Another sort of Pilgrims … who spend their time in trouling from one place of Devotion to another.
2. trans. To move (a ball, bowl, round body) by or as by rolling; to roll, bowl, trundle; to turn over and over, or round and round; to roll (the eyes); to throw (dice); spec. to trundle (a bowl) at the game of bowls (also absol.); also, to knock down by bowling.
c. 1425. St. Eliz. of Spalbeck, in Anglia, VIII. 117/12. Sche myghte not holde hir heed vpon a pillow … but … trollid it lyderwarde and þyderwarde.
c. 1450. Two Cookery-bks., 95. Put all in a treen boll, and trull [v.r. twille] hit to-gidre with thi honde.
1572. [see TROLL-MADAM].
1599. Porter, Angry Wom. Abingt. (Percy Soc.), 8. Let them trowle the bowles vppon the greene; Ile trowle the bowles in the buttery.
1628. Le Grys, Barclay’s Argenis, 77. Shee trowled her angry eyes on euery side.
1647. Fanshaw, Civ. Wars Rome, Poems 301. The forbidden Dice to trowle.
1665. T. A., Excell. Roy. Hand, 9. Taking a few Pease out of his Pocket,… he troll’d them along the Floor.
1699. J. Dunton, Life & Err. (1818), II. 594. The Duke was then flinging the first bowl. Next trowled the Bishop.
1821. Galt, Ann. Parish, xlv. The sinner … who loves to troll his iniquity like a sweet morsel under his tongue.
1822. Scott, Nigel, xxi. As I was wont to trowl down the ninepins in the skittle-ground.
1841. Thackeray, Drum, I. iii. My Grandsire was trolling the [drum-]sticks.
3. intr. To roll; also, to turn round and round; to spin, whirl.
1581. Mulcaster, Positions, xix. (1887), 80. Children when they had their whirling gigges vnder the deuotion of their scourges, caused them to troule about the broad streates.
1626. Breton, Fantasticks, Easter Day (1857), 330. The Lovers eyes doe troule like Tennis balls.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 18. Mites … trolling to and fro with this mealy dust … sticking to them.
1730. Swift, Death & Daphne, 88. How pleasant on the Banks of Styx, To troll it in a Coach and Six!
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., I. This is Lady—Lady—these tamn’d Southern names rin out o’ my head like a stane trowling down hill.
1855. Singleton, Virgil, I. So Waggons … That lazy troll.
II. 4. intr. To move nimbly, as the tongue in speaking; to wag. Also said of a person. Obs. or arch.
a. 1616. Beaumont, Ex-ale-tation of Ale, xxxiv. Fill him but a boule, it will make his tongue troule.
1638. Ford, Fancies, III. iii. His tongue trouls like a mill-clack.
1828. Blackw. Mag., XXIV. 166. See how she trolls with the tongue.
b. trans. To move (the tongue) volubly. ? Obs.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 620. To sing, to dance, To dress, and troule the Tongue, and roule the Eye.
1747. [? Upton], New Canto Spencer’s F. Q., xviii. 12. How they troul the Tongue and roll the Eye.
† 5. fig. trans. To turn over in one’s mind; to revolve, ponder, contemplate. Obs. rare–1.
1685. F. Spence, trans. Varillas’ Ho. Medicis, 107. His Holiness … had trolled in his understanding so black a crime.
III. † 6. trans. To cause to pass from one to another, hand round among the company present; esp. in phrase to troll the bowl. Hence troll-the-bowl as sb., a tippler, carouser. Obs.
1575. Song, in Gammer Gurton, II. B j b. Then dooth she trowle, to mee the bowle.
1599. Porter, Angry Wom. Abingt., B ij b. Where be … these trowle the bowles, these greene men?
1600. Dekker, Gentle Craft (1862), 4. Trowl the bowl, the jolly nut-brown bowl.
† 7. intr. Of the vessel or its contents: To move or pass round the company; to circulate, be passed round. Obs.
1620. Middleton, Chaste Maid, III. ii. 77. Now the cups troll about To wet the gossips’ whistles.
1651. Miller of Mansf., 9. Nappie Ale … in a browne Bole Which did about the Board merrily trowle.
1808. Scott, Marm., VI. Introd. 65. The wassel round, in good brown bowls, Garnish’d with ribbons, blithely trowls.
† 8. intr. To come in abundantly like a flowing stream; to ‘roll’ in. Obs.
1576. Gascoigne, Steele Gl. (Arb.), 68. He that can winke at any foule abuse As long as gaines come trouling in therwith.
a. 1627. Middleton & Rowley, Spanish Gypsy, I. (1653), C ij. This little Ape gets money by the sack full, It troules upon her.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Jacke-a-Lent, Wks. I. 117/1. The pide-coat Mackrell, Pilchard, Sprat, and Soale, To serve great Jacke-a-Lent amaine doe trole.
1689. Hickeringill, Ceremony-Monger, Concl. iii. Wks. 1716, II. 482. The Council of Sardica … saw this Develish Mischief coming trowling into the Church.
† 9. trans. To cause to roll or flow (in). Obs.
1573. Tusser, Husb., lix. (1878), 137. That trustily thriftines trowleth to thee.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (1871), 40. To trowl in cash throughout all nations.
IV. 10. trans. To sing (something) in the manner of a round or catch; to sing in a full, rolling voice; to chant merrily or jovially. Cf. ROLL v.2 4 b. Const. forth, out.
Perh. originally fig. from 6 = to sing in succession, as a round or catch (each line being as it were passed on to the next singer).
1575, 1586. [see TROLLING vbl. sb. 2].
1610. Shaks., Temp., III. ii. 126. Will you troule the Catch You taught me but whileare?
1672. Shadwell, Miser, I. if thou wert just now trolling out Hopkins and Sternhold.
1813. Scott, Rokeby, III. xxviii. But, hark! our merry-men so gay Troll forth another roundelay.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, ix. He could touch the lute and troll a gay song.
b. intr. To sing in this way; to carol, warble.
1879. Stevenson, Trav. Cevennes, 132. He trolled with ample lungs. Ibid. (1881), Virg. Puerisque, 281. Pan, the god of Nature,… trolling on his pipe until he charmed the hearts of upland ploughmen.
11. intr. Of bells: To give forth a recurring cadence of full, mellow tones; of a song: to sound or be uttered in a full, rolling, or jovial voice; transf. of a tune: to be present in or recur constantly to the mind, to ‘run in one’s head.’
1607. [see TROLLING ppl. a.].
1678. Dryden, Kind Keeper, III. i. I have had … a Tune trouling in my Head.
1682. H. Aldrich, Upon Christ Church Bells Oxf. O the bonny Christ Church Bells … they … trowle so merrily, merrily.
1813. [see TROLLING ppl. a.].
1890. Barrie, My Lady Nicotine, xxx. 239. He strolled away, an air from ‘The Grand Duchess’ lightly trolling from his lips.
12. trans. To utter nimbly or rapidly; to recite in a full rolling voice. Also intr. of speech.
1625. B. Jonson, Staple of N., IV. iv. If he runne To his Judiciall Astrologie, And trowle the Trine, the Quartile and the Sextile.
1709. Mrs. Manley, Secret Mem., I. 185. The old Ones Discourse trouls all upon Virtue.
1850. L. Hunt, Autobiog., III. xix. 50. They speak well out, trolling the words clearly over the tongue.
1874. Blackie, Horæ Hellen., 292. Greek trimeters may be trolled off from the British tongue, as glibly as any hexameters.
V. 13. Angling. intr. To angle with a running line (? orig. with the line running on a ‘troll’ or winch); also (trans.) to fish (water) in this way; spec. a. to fish for pike by working a dead bait (usually on a gorge hook) by a sink-and-draw motion; b. (trans. and intr.), to angle with a spinning bait: = SPIN v. 1 2 a, b; c. in U.S. and Sc. use (perh. through association with trail or trawl), to trail a baited line behind a boat. Also fig.
In quot. 1606 perh. confused with TRAWL.
1606. S. Gardiner, Bk. Angling, 23. Consider how God by his Preachers trowleth for thee.
1651–7. [see TROLLING vbl. sb.3].
1675. Crowne, Country Wit, V. Here have I been angling and trowling for my Father-in-law, and have had him at my hook all day.
1682. Nobbes, Compl. Troller (1822), 226. In some places, they troll without a rod, or playing the bait, as I have seen them throw a line out of a boat, and so let it draw after them as they row.
1711. Gay, Rural Sports, I. 264. Nor drain I ponds the golden carp to take, Nor trowle for pikes, dispeoplers of the lake.
1764. Goldsm., Trav., 187. The peasant … With patient angle trolls the finny deep.
1814–24. Col. Hawker, Instr. Yng. Sportsm., 173. Trolling, or spinning a minnow, is the other most general mode of trout fishing.
1831. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7), III. 144/2. Trolling, in the more limited sense of the word, signifies catching fish with the gorge-hook, which is composed of two, or what is called a double eel-hook.
1864. Webster, Troll,… to angle … with a hook drawn along the surface of the water.
1881. Harper’s Mag., Nov., 831. I troll a cast of flies.
1891. Lang, Angling Sk., 5. Trolling a minnow from a boat in Loch Leven—probably the lowest possible form of angling.
† 14. fig. trans. To draw on as with a moving bait; to entice, allure. Obs.
1765. Golding, Ovid’s Met., II. (1593), 33. They troll me downe to lower waies.
1638. Ford, Lady’s Trial, V. i. I foster a decoy here, And she trowls on her ragged customer.
1684. J. Goodman, Winter-even. Confer., I. (1705), 21. The hopes he is fed withal trowls him on.
VI. † 15. Phrases. a. Hawking. (?)
a. 1529. Skelton, Ware the Hauke, 116. With troll, cytrace [? trytrace], and trouy, They ranged, hankin bouy.
1575. R. B., Appius & Virginia, B j. With hey tricke, how trowle, trey trip, and trey trace Trowle hazard in a vengeance.
† b. Troll and troll by, Troll hazard, Troll with, as sbs., names for various ‘orders of knaves’: see quot. and cf. sense 1. Obs. Cant.
1561. Awdelay, Frat. Vacab. (E.E.T.S.), 12. Troll and Trol by, is he that setteth naught by no man nor no man by him. Troll with is he that no man shall know the seruaunt from ye Maister…. Troll hazard of trace is he that goeth behynde his Maister as far as he may see hym…. Troll hazard of tritrace, is he that goeth gaping after his Master.
