troubled

1. 1
   adjective

   Feeling anxious, worried, or weighed down by cares.

   A troubled expression crossed her face as she read the letter.

   He seemed deeply troubled by the choice he was being forced to make.

   Similarworried, anxious, uneasy, disturbed, distressed

   Oppositeuntroubled, calm, serene, carefree

2. 2
   adjective

   Beset by problems, conflict, or persistent difficulties.

   The troubled region has endured decades of political conflict.

   Investors fled the troubled bank after reports of heavy losses.

   Similarbeleaguered, ailing, turbulent

   Oppositestable, thriving, peaceful

3. 3
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of trouble.

   The unanswered questions troubled him for weeks afterward.

   Reports of the layoffs troubled employees across the company.

   Note

   A regular past form doing two jobs: the simple past (the news troubled her) and the participle after have or be. It can be reflexive with an infinitive, as in she never troubled herself to reply, and an older, now archaic use stirred up water itself. In the passive it shades into the "anxious" adjective. Once it takes very or more troubled, the adjective has taken over.

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