a. Forms: see TROUBLE sb. [f. TROUBLE sb. + -SOME1.] Full of, characterized by, or causing trouble.
† 1. Full of disturbance or tumult; disturbed, disorderly, unsettled, troublous. Obs.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. IV., 19. His painfull and busi wanderyng, his troblesome and vncertaine abidyng.
1553. in Hakluyt, Voy. (1599), II. 111. There arose in the ship such a troublesome disturbance, that all the ship was in an vprore with weapons.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 98. The state of Christendom was troublesome.
1687. Aldworth in Magd. Coll. & Jas. II. (O.H.S.), 63. In troublesome times.
† b. Causing or inclined to cause disturbance; turbulent. Obs.
1552. Huloet, Troublesome, or full of troublynge, or who troubleth muche, vexabundus.
1591. Savile, Tacitus, Hist., I. lxvii. 37. His froward and troublesome disposition.
1687. H. Holden, in Magd. Coll. & Jas. II. (O.H.S.), 124. The Crowd … was very troublesome.
† c. Characterized by physical disturbance or agitation; stormy. Obs.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., Pref. 2 b. In so many troublesome stormes, and tempestes full of pearil.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 697. It is a troublesome River and dangerous even in Summer time.
1623. Lisle, Ælfric on O. & N. Test., Pref. A troublesome and tempestuous sea.
2. Full of trouble, affliction, or distress; troubled, sorrowful. arch.
1552. Bk. Com. Prayer, Public Baptism Infants. That they … maye so passe the waues of thys troublesome world, that [etc.].
1575–85. Abp. Sandys, Serm. (Parker Soc.), 321. Heretics, by whom it [marriage] hath been not only misliked as troublesome, but utterly condemned as unclean.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, IV. vi. § 4. 281. So many Darts … as tooke away his … hopes, together with his troublesome life.
1734. Arbuthnot, Lett. to Swift, 4 Oct. I am going out of this troublesome world.
1853. Lynch, Self-Improv., ii. 43. Christianity is … plainly designed for a troublesome world.
† b. Troubled in mind, having trouble. rare–1.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., V. (S.T.S.), I. 289. For the cleir cloudis to the dulfull was pleisant, and to the trublesum happie.
3. Giving trouble; causing annoyance; vexatious, distressing, worrying, bothering.
1573. G. Harvey, Letter-bk. (Camden), 4. I hope you wil haue me excusid thouh I be trubblesum to your waihtier affaiers.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., I. i. 325. Ile rather be vnmannerly, then troublesome.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, II. xiii. 112. Why are not the nightes in summer at Peru, as hotte and troublesome as in Spaine?
1662. J. Davies, trans. Olearius’ Voy. Ambass., 97. This small mony … is troublesome in the telling and handling.
1747. Wesley, Prim. Physick (1762), 84. If the Cough be very troublesome.
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, xlv. VI. 33. If the barbarians were troublesome neighbours.
4. Involving labor or effort; toilsome, laborious, difficult; tiresome, wearisome, oppressive. Now rare.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 243. An office of exceeding great authoritie, and maruellous troublesome.
1600. J. Pory, trans. Leo’s Africa, V. 236. Their streetes either descend or ascend, which is verie troublesome to them that haue any busines in the towne.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., VI. 253. Leauing our troublesome way.
1780. Mirror, No. 97, ¶ 30. When I first got the multiplication-table by heart … it was a plaguy troublesome job.
1836–41. Brande, Chem. (ed. 5), 485. Phosphorus may be purified by careful distillation, but the process is troublesome and dangerous.
† b. Painstaking, laborious. Obs. rare.
1818. Moore, Mem. (1853), II. 245. A most learned and troublesome practician.
