I. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a good deal of trouble/time/work etc
▪
I went to a good deal of trouble to get this ticket.
a guilty/troubled conscience (= the knowledge that you have done something wrong )
▪
His guilty conscience kept him awake at night.
an anxious/troubled/worried expression
▪
She stood looking at me with an anxious expression.
at...sniff of trouble
▪
He got us into this mess, and then left at the first sniff of trouble !
be in deep trouble
▪
Evan would be in deep trouble if he was caught.
cause trouble
▪
I decided not to complain because I didn’t want to cause trouble.
engine trouble (= problems with an engine )
▪
When the boat developed engine trouble, the crew had to abandon ship.
have trouble sleeping (= to not sleep well )
▪
Why do so many elderly people have trouble sleeping?
have trouble/difficulty breathing
▪
In high altitudes some people have trouble breathing.
heart trouble/problems
▪
You should not take this medication if you have heart problems.
led...into trouble
▪
Her trusting nature often led her into trouble .
run into trouble/problems/difficulties
▪
The business ran into financial difficulties almost immediately.
save sb the trouble/bother (of doing sth)
▪
I’ll get a taxi from the station to save you the trouble of coming to collect me.
sense trouble
▪
The other women, sensing trouble, immediately began to edge away.
serious trouble
▪
The economy was in serious trouble.
stirring up trouble
▪
John was always stirring up trouble in class.
teething troubles
time/reason/trouble etc enough old-fashioned
▪
Come on – there’ll be time enough to chat later.
trouble brewing
▪
There’s trouble brewing in the office.
trouble spot
▪
She’s reported from many of the world’s trouble spots.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
big
▪
And I shall be in big trouble if I return alone.
▪
Down by as much as 25 percent in polls, in power for 18 years, the Conservatives are in big trouble .
▪
Despite that, many in the industry reckon Daimler's biggest troubles may still be ahead.
▪
Although he was in big trouble three of the five innings he pitched, Kamieniecki kept putting zeroes on the board.
▪
Landed herself in big trouble in the Bay, but managed to get out of it.
▪
Payroll taxes get you into trouble , and withheld payroll taxes get you into big trouble.
▪
Once Belmont picked up an opening end count of five, Dunluce were in big trouble .
▪
If the dam broke, the village would be in big big trouble .
deep
▪
Planning permission for a big housing development has been refused, and the group is in deep trouble over it.
▪
It put him, as investor in these two as well as Ballantynes the printers who were also insolvent, in deep trouble .
▪
He warned management during training camp that the team would be in deep trouble if either he or Johnson suffered injuries.
▪
The retreat of individuals to the private sector simply obscures the deep troubles of national education as a whole.
▪
Again he got him in deep trouble , knocking him down three times last year.
▪
At home, Felipe Gonzalez's Socialists are in deep trouble .
▪
If everyone except Fifi and Manuel shows up at the compound, the lovers will be in deep trouble .
financial
▪
And there is a vast difference between businessmen in financial trouble and consumers in financial trouble.
▪
Universities found that the students in most financial trouble have dependants, and received most help from the funds.
▪
And there is a vast difference between businessmen in financial trouble and consumers in financial trouble.
▪
Suddenly it became obvious that the company was in serious financial trouble .
▪
However, three years ago, the society nearly folded from financial troubles .
real
▪
She was in real trouble now.
▪
The begin-ning of real trouble was flunking the bar exam and receiving, in turn, a reduced salary from my firm.
▪
From that, alas, real trouble arose.
▪
She was significantly below average in this area; she had real trouble recalling the design and drawing it.
▪
If his controller had taken her seriously, he might have been in real trouble .
▪
This is where you can get into real trouble .
▪
The real trouble with smacking is that it is too easy.
▪
Those road bonds are in real trouble -- and for good reason.
serious
▪
If the forester finds green wood in your woodpile, you're in serious trouble .
▪
This can lead to serious trouble .
▪
It is a star in serious trouble , with bright bloated lobes of gas swelling off it, announcing its death throes.
▪
He refused to discuss suspects, but made it clear that some one is in serious trouble .
▪
The man had been accused of raping a local girl and was in very serious trouble .
▪
Yet, even as conservative ideas are in the ascendancy, the parties and politicians that represent them are in serious trouble .
▪
Its leaders knew there was a serious risk of trouble if it took a mass march into Gqozo's lair.
▪
But whenever Clinton finds himself in serious trouble , he has dialed up Morris, 48.
terrible
▪
All of a sudden the dynamite business was in terrible trouble .
▪
When something goes wrong, as it always does, they are in terrible trouble .
■ NOUN
engine
▪
As the Sea King hovered in gale force winds, alarms warned of engine trouble .
▪
For the record their performance was marred by engine trouble , but simply taking part was more significant than the result.
▪
Outside Peterborough we ran into engine trouble and lost nearly two hours.
▪
The boat belonging to Arnold Spence, the fisherman for whom he worked, had developed engine trouble .
▪
Gehlbach, flying the R-2 had engine trouble in the Bendix, losing oil, and finishing second.
▪
He had a story of engine trouble to explain his own unauthorised landing, and we had to let him go.
▪
J.B. Holgate had suffered engine trouble and been forced to return.
heart
▪
Bryan, said to have severe arthritis and heart trouble , admitted attempted murder.
▪
That would introduce a bias toward heart trouble among calcium channel blocker users.
▪
Ken's enthusiasm never diminished and up until his recent heart trouble his work rate for the club was never less than 114 percent.
▪
With or without heart trouble , Shelby wasn't a man to settle for a dull life.
▪
This could happen in a high-stress job where the executive concerned has a history of heart trouble .
▪
One concern is that he suffers from heart trouble .
▪
Mr Taylor had to resign on December 31, 1990, after heart trouble led to four coronary by-pass operations.
spot
▪
Their occupational duty, as they saw it, was equally clear-sufficient numbers and mobile reserves for the trouble spots .
▪
In the event of a threat to security, they would grab their helmets and weapons and rush to the trouble spot .
▪
As the verb is the first trouble spot encountered in the sentence, the substitution is made there.
▪
Undeterred, the band went sight-seeing around the various trouble spots , getting their pictures taken besides security gates and confused-looking squaddies.
▪
Typically, the software comes with a pre-programmed database of known Internet trouble spots .
▪
The list of trouble spots is endless.
▪
Local News Editor Rona Johnson was especially effective directing reporters to new trouble spots .
■ VERB
cause
▪
There are people out there who will use any excuse to cause trouble .
▪
On offense, they run a five-receiver set that some people think will cause the Cowboys trouble .
▪
We didn't give them a chance to cause trouble .
▪
I did not find that dropping him home caused me any trouble with him at school.
▪
If they started to cause trouble , we just asked them to move on and they appreciated it.
▪
To get them, he was, for a man in a suit, surprisingly willing to cause trouble .
▪
If they cause trouble with me I cause trouble with them it's as simple as that.
▪
I feel like I want to cause a little trouble , and nobody lets me.
get
▪
And that we only get into trouble if we drive them while eating a Kit Kat.
▪
Payroll taxes get you into trouble , and withheld payroll taxes get you into big trouble.
▪
That young so-and-so might easily have got his Betty into trouble , if he had not caught them in time.
▪
His propensity for saying yes when no would have been more appropriate kept getting the partnership into trouble .
▪
She accused Nanny of making up stories about her and saying bad things to get Frankie into trouble .
▪
He could take care of it when one of the kids got in trouble with the police.
▪
They loose all sense of direction and get into trouble .
▪
Even when I am good, I get in trouble .
keep
▪
Vacation time Francis arranged for him to caddy at the Lyford Cay club to keep him out of trouble .
▪
The loyalty program he established in 1947 was the first step toward making them value caution and keeping out of trouble .
▪
Either tactic offers at least a chance of keeping trouble to the minimum.
▪
You need a captain along to keep you out of trouble .
▪
As Errol remarked: I try to keep out of trouble the best I can.
▪
But that's good because it keeps us out of trouble .
▪
Robert actually trembled in his longing to protect and to keep all trouble from her.
▪
In the age of anxiety gay men go to the gym five nights a week, just to keep out of trouble .
land
▪
There was no harm in that but it landed him in trouble every time.
▪
Might we not show these photographs to the government and land the people in trouble ?
▪
Which is just as well because some of them have played just a little bit too hard, landing themselves in serious trouble .
▪
He was irascible, hard-cussing, for ever landing in trouble .
▪
Jones landed in trouble over his commentary on a football video glorifying violence.
▪
But that would land Dolly in trouble .
▪
Modern-day racers are under the public spotlight and any slip-up can land them in serious trouble .
▪
It doesn't have to land you in trouble .
run
▪
Brett must have run into trouble .
▪
It was a year that also saw Barings run into trouble keeping personnel.
▪
It depended for its prosperity on the local slate quarries and when these ran into trouble so did the railway.
▪
But they run into trouble when Maj.
▪
Some heavily-indebted developers have run into trouble , causing problems for the finance companies that back them.
▪
Societies that treat their constituent members as identical pawns soon run into trouble .
▪
He ran into more trouble during the cheque presentation on the players balcony when he appeared in a vest.
▪
The firm ran into trouble last year after evidence of fraud was found at some of its sites.
save
▪
We could dispense some justice and hang him from the bowsprit to save the courts the trouble .
▪
It saved her the trouble of putting gray powder in her hair.
▪
It saves me the trouble of going after you.
▪
Manny says, saving Primo the trouble .
▪
Act now, save trouble later!
▪
Blyth saved me the trouble of suggesting a game of football by doing it himself.
▪
Why not send government poll-takers door to door, saving voters the trouble of having to remember when Election Day falls?
spell
▪
However, other investors said a difficult Diet session could spell trouble for bonds in the medium-term.
▪
And a free email address, like Hotmail, spells trouble .
▪
Even a danger that spelled immediate trouble was allowed to simmer.
▪
That spells trouble for the individual, the team, and, perhaps most important, the client.
▪
If true, it could spell big trouble for many people, and not just those living in seaside cottages.
stay
▪
Keep in touch with the leaders, aim to hit the front a furlong out, stay out of trouble .
▪
She had decided at an early age that the best way to stay out of trouble was to stay out of sight.
▪
Forget Ascot, she told herself, ride your race, but stay out of trouble .
▪
After she calmed down she reminded me of our bargain, and of how she had stayed out of trouble all year.
▪
I managed to stay out of trouble , though.
▪
In spite of his vows to stay out of trouble he always managed to find it.
▪
He can't be expected to know how to stay out of trouble here in the country.
▪
Darlington juvenile court gave the girl a conditional discharge for 12 months and she was warned to stay out of trouble .
stir
▪
Don't deliberately stir up trouble . 5 Pray for the person that is picking on you.
▪
When Hercules arrived she met him kindly and told him she would give him the girdle, but Hera stirred up trouble .
▪
And, of course, if he did stir up trouble he could always be put inside again.
▪
We appreciate the investment, without which we would be unable to stir up the trouble that gives our lives meaning.
▪
While all this was going on agents of Naggaroth were abroad throughout the Old World stirring up trouble .
▪
For lawyers, unlike most accountants, love to stir up trouble .
▪
Whenever there is a chance, she and her partners will emerge and stir up trouble .
take
▪
This involves the incoming group taking the time and trouble to go and see other local leaders to talk through their plans.
▪
But Richard would read it all, searching carefully, talking to anyone who had taken the trouble to come in.
▪
Gesner was taking a lot of trouble with Ingrid in the Baron.
▪
He could not have been kinder nor taken more trouble to see that we enjoyed ourselves.
▪
The morale was high, the nursing caring and good and the doctors could not have taken more trouble .
▪
Mr Tempest said he was sorry to receive the news but glad he had taken the trouble to inquire.
▪
My doctor's a nice young man, takes no end of trouble .
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be asking for trouble
▪
Anyone who buys second-hand car tires is just asking for trouble.
▪
Walking around downtown late at night is just asking for trouble.
▪
You'd better check the oil in your car. Otherwise you're just asking for trouble.
▪
You need to have a good knowledge of the industry before you buy stocks, or you're asking for trouble.
▪
Certainly don't put them one in front of the other, as this is asking for trouble.
▪
If you leave your wallet unattended on the beach while frolicking in the waves, you are asking for trouble.
▪
It was asking for trouble especially if you wore glasses like him.
▪
Kitty was totally preoccupied with the threatened invasion, and to tell her this would be asking for trouble.
▪
One cautious council member thought the parish would be asking for trouble by starting a sister-parish relationship in a war zone.
▪
Producing a play without an interval these days is asking for trouble.
▪
That would simply be asking for trouble!
be looking for trouble
▪
The kid with the knife was looking for trouble.
▪
Hindsight tells me that I was looking for trouble, but-at the time I knew nothing about it.
▪
They were looking for trouble and they found us instead.
borrow trouble
dig sb out of trouble/a mess/a hole etc
foment revolution/trouble/discord etc
land sb in trouble/hospital/court etc
▪
Being too aggressive can land you in trouble - and still not get you paid.
▪
But that would land Dolly in trouble.
▪
In fact, it's the very program that landed Microsoft in court.
▪
It doesn't have to land you in trouble.
▪
Might we not show these photographs to the government and land the people in trouble?
▪
The attendant filed criminal charges against the princess, landing her in court two days after she landed at Logan.
▪
There was no harm in that but it landed him in trouble every time.
no end of trouble/problems etc
▪
My doctor's a nice young man, takes no end of trouble.
▪
Neighbours say a new flats development in Sun Street, Darlington, has created no end of problems.
▪
They'd caused no end of problems for the nomes.
pour oil on troubled waters
put sb to trouble/inconvenience
smell trouble/danger etc
▪
Müller had smelled trouble the moment she said who she was.
▪
You seem to smell danger and taste excitement and, as television has no smell or taste, that is powerful evocation.
spare sb the trouble/difficulty/pain etc (of doing sth)
spell trouble/disaster/danger etc
▪
After all, one case of the trots hardly spells disaster.
▪
Delegated authority without a meaningful consultation process would spell disaster for teacher morale, motivation, commitment and hence effectiveness.
▪
However, other investors said a difficult Diet session could spell trouble for bonds in the medium-term.
▪
Staff here say that would spell disaster for hundreds of alcoholics.
▪
Troubling developments For the reference-service industry, these developments spell trouble.
store up trouble/problems etc
▪
Mahmud may have bought time for himself, but he stored up trouble for his successors.
the least of sb's worries/problems/troubles/concerns
▪
For not the least of Henry's problems was how to raise the money required for the accomplishment of such an undertaking.
▪
Greatly increased taxes and a major shift back to defence expenditure could be the least of our worries.
▪
Not the least of its problems was extreme alienation between labor and management.
▪
That was the least of her troubles.
▪
The death under somewhat dubious circumstances of a racehorse belonging to his son was frankly the least of his problems.
trouble with a capital T, fast with a capital F etc
troubled waters
▪
After just half an hour in the pool, it was back to the troubled waters of the Foreign Office.
▪
The Oxford oar presented as a momento, will help bail him out of any troubled waters he's yet to encounter.
▪
This particular fish was very shortly going to find itself in exceedingly troubled waters.
▪
We don't need to enter the troubled waters of religious truth-claims.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
I think we've found out what the trouble is.
▪
If you have engine trouble , park as far to the side of the road as possible.
▪
If you used the same tape later and had no trouble with the picture, the problem is probably in the VCR.
▪
If you used the same tape later and had no sound trouble , the problem is in the video recorder, not the tape.
▪
Norris had trouble finding work and is still unemployed.
▪
Snow and freezing temperatures caused trouble at many airports.
▪
The trouble was caused by a loose connection in the fuse box.
▪
The trouble with lasagne is that it takes so long to make.
▪
The troubles are far from over.
▪
The pilot reported trouble with both engines.
▪
The U.S. is responsible for its own troubles.
▪
We've been having some trouble with the air-conditioning.
▪
We have had a lot of trouble with the car this year.
▪
When they walked by, I knew there was going to be trouble .
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
Anyway, the three friends strut around their complex baiting police, doing Robert De Niro impressions and generally causing trouble .
▪
Much has also been made of the effect the troubles are having on tourism, farming, and the exchange rate.
▪
My life fell apart, but he had no trouble picking up the pieces and forged ahead with a new woman.
▪
Perhaps, I thought, she sensed the trouble she was in.
▪
That was just the start of the trouble .
▪
The mortgage payments were no small trouble , what with his sister gone; he needed to improve his profits, dramatically.
▪
Towson led 14-12 at the half, but signs of trouble were evident.
II. verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
deeply
▪
But its seeming determination to do so is deeply troubling .
▪
This is deeply troubling to many members of the faiths concerned.
▪
Gabriel tried to slot this into what the new death was all about; she was deeply troubled .
▪
Bill Archer is very worried, deeply troubled that a constitutional crisis may be approaching.
▪
She remains deeply troubled by separatist movements.
enough
▪
I felt troubled enough about this to relate it later to the Reading Teacher.
▪
The issue was important and troubling enough to prompt me to investigate.
much
▪
Three years later, this question would much trouble Boswell.
▪
At this sight Catharine, much troubled , prostrated profoundly and gradually restored the foot of Agnes to its usual position.
never
▪
And the farmer and his wife were never troubled by the tiger again.
▪
But Symington is never troubled by the here and now.
▪
In his accounts of Roman men and manners, Polybius is never troubled by difficulties of interpretation.
▪
It never troubled them, and never divided them.
▪
Fogarty led all the way and was never troubled by the Dunlop duo behind him.
still
▪
But what was still troubling her was the fact that she had still not broached the subject of Janice.
▪
There is just one thing still troubling me, Holmes, although you will think it absurd.
▪
But something still troubled the chief inspector.
▪
I doubted if thoughts of Morgause still troubled his sleep.
▪
He was still troubled by her last phrase about Al Moore.
▪
Nearly everyone is still troubled by the memory of what happened, and all hope nothing like it happens again.
▪
The outlook in the second half is still troubled by silk prices.
▪
Madge could see that Polly was still troubled , but of course she thought the whole problem was lack of roughage.
■ NOUN
conscience
▪
I could not make out whether his conscience was troubling him or whether he didn't realise what he was telling me.
▪
She liked their life together, and her conscience had never been troubled by the knowledge of where their wealth came from.
■ VERB
seem
▪
At first, the darkening official mood seems not to have troubled Prokofiev.
▪
But such misfortunes do not seem to trouble the prime minister.
▪
The unvarying similarity of her days didn't seem to trouble her.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
no end of trouble/problems etc
▪
My doctor's a nice young man, takes no end of trouble.
▪
Neighbours say a new flats development in Sun Street, Darlington, has created no end of problems.
▪
They'd caused no end of problems for the nomes.
the least of sb's worries/problems/troubles/concerns
▪
For not the least of Henry's problems was how to raise the money required for the accomplishment of such an undertaking.
▪
Greatly increased taxes and a major shift back to defence expenditure could be the least of our worries.
▪
Not the least of its problems was extreme alienation between labor and management.
▪
That was the least of her troubles.
▪
The death under somewhat dubious circumstances of a racehorse belonging to his son was frankly the least of his problems.
trouble with a capital T, fast with a capital F etc
troubled waters
▪
After just half an hour in the pool, it was back to the troubled waters of the Foreign Office.
▪
The Oxford oar presented as a momento, will help bail him out of any troubled waters he's yet to encounter.
▪
This particular fish was very shortly going to find itself in exceedingly troubled waters.
▪
We don't need to enter the troubled waters of religious truth-claims.
uncharted/troubled/murky waters
▪
A fish that comes from slow-moving often murky waters is unlikely to appreciate bright lighting or turbulent filtration.
▪
A last desperate attempt to escape into the murky waters .
▪
And instead of heading off into uncharted waters , Shyamalan has positively invited comparisons with his previous opus.
▪
But then our conversations took a dive into the murky waters of sexuality and jealousy.
▪
Clearly the 49ers are sailing in uncharted waters .
▪
I would be chary of anything caught in these murky waters .
▪
Other career seekers are more interested in venturing into uncharted waters .
▪
This is useful if you fly by night or live in murky waters .
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
He often troubled the neighbors to take care of his dog.
▪
I didn't want to trouble you - you have your own problems.
▪
Many workers said they were troubled by the lack of safety procedures.
▪
She doesn't want to trouble you by asking lots of questions.
▪
She is troubled by the fact that her son already shows signs of inheriting his father's mental problems.
▪
Stephen's been troubled with an earache all week.
▪
The incident troubled me -- it wasn't like Sarah to be so secretive.
▪
You must talk to your daughter and find out what's troubling her.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
But its seeming determination to do so is deeply troubling.
▪
Castro said he was troubled by such disparities.
▪
Every great religion originally appeared as a response among people desperate for comfort and solace during troubling times.
▪
He got permission to fly home to Detroit for a look-see at his troubled right ankle.
▪
He is troubled for two reasons.
▪
Marian talked over with him some of the things that troubled her.