a. Obs. Forms: 4 trubli, -byly, 4–5 troubli, trobli, -bly, trublee, 4–6 trowbly, trubly, 4–7 troubly, 5 trow-, trobely. [f. TROUBLE sb. + -Y1 or -LY1: cf. cloudy, muddy.]
1. = TROUBLE a. 1.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 14. Þese fisheris of God shulden waishe þere nettis in þis ryuer, for Cristis prechours shulden … not medle wiþ mannis lawe, þat is trobly water.
c. 1400. Trublee [see TROUBLE a. 1].
1422. trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv., 229. Tho that bene Pale and trowbely y-colurid.
1450–80. trans. Secreta Secret., xlv. 28. The eyre wexith trobely.
c. 1530. Judic. Urines, II. i. 11 b. Rubeus & subrubeus color with a thycke and a trowbly bodye, sheweth grete dysturblynge of the humours. Ibid., vii. 28. Trubly.
1605. Stow, Annals, 707. When it betokeneth battaile, [it] runneth foule, and troubly water; and when it betokeneth dearth or pestilence, it runneth cleare [cf. TROUBLE a. 1, q. 1482].
2. = TROUBLE a. 2.
c. 1340. Hampole, Prose Tr., 31. Þe trubylyere þat þou hase bene owtwarde with actyfe werkes, the mare brynnande desyre þou sall hafe to Godd.
c. 1412. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 2. The restles bisynesse Which that this troubly world hath ay on honde. Ibid. (1421), Compl., 302. This troubly lyfe hathe all to longe enduryd.
14[?]. in Hist. Coll. Citizen Lond. (Camden), 188. He … passyde owte of thys wrecchyde and false trobely worlde.
3. = TROUBLE a. 3.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIII. xxii. (Bodl. MS.). Whanne þe see is aboue troublye and to hiȝe bi windes and stormes.
c. 1400[?]. Lydg., Æsop’s Fab., ii. 44. Þou … Sekest occasion by trobly violence Ayenst me. Ibid. (1430–40), Bochas, IX. xxiii. (MS. Bodl. 263), lf. 427/2. Who may the furies of fortune appese Hir troubli wawes to make hem calm and pleyne?
1513. Douglas, Æneis, IV. v. 133. He chasis the windis away, And trubly cluddis dividis in a thraw.
Hence † Troubliness, troubled or disturbed condition; turbidity.
c. 1530. Judic. Urines, II. iii. 18. Vryne … with a trublynes … sheweth a wombe fluxe.
