Troll | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Trōll, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. TROLLED; p. pr. & vb. n. TROLLING.] [Ger. trollen, to roll, to troll, W. trólieu, to troll, trundle, trōl, a cylinder, roller, troelli, to put in a whirling motion, troell, a wheel, a reel; Fr. trôler, O. Fr. troller, trauler, to drag about, to troll. Cf. TROLL.]

Sense 1. To move circularly or volubly; to roll; to turn; to drive about. “To dress and troll the tongue, and roll the eye.” Milton.

Sense 2. To send about; to circulate, as a vessel in drinking.

Then doth she troll to me the bowl. Gammer Gurton’s Needle.

Troll the brown bowl. W. Scott.

Sense 3. To sing the parts of in succession, as of a round, a catch, and the like; also, to sing loudly or freely.

Will you troll the catch? Shak.

His sonnets charmed the attentive crowd, By wide-mouthed mortal trolled aloud. Hudibras.

Sense 4. To angle for with a trolling-line, or with a hook drawn along the surface of the water; hence, to allure; to entice.

Sense 5. To fish in; to seek to catch fish from. “With patient angle trolls the finny deep.” Goldsmith.

Trōll, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. 1. To roll; to run about; as, to troll in a coach and six.

Sense 2. To fish with a rod whose line runs on a wheel or pulley, or by drawing the hook through the water.

Their young men . . . trolled along the brooks that abounded in fish. Bancroft.

Trōll, n.

noun

n. A song the parts of which are sung in succession; a catch; a round.

Thence the catch and troll, while “Laughter, holding both his sides,” sheds tears to song and ballad pathetic on the woes of married life, and all the ills that our “flesh is heir to.” Prof. Wilson.

Trōll, n.

noun

n. (Scandinavian Myth.) A supernatural being, represented as of diminutive size, and said to inhabit caves, hills, and like places. W. Scott.