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Troll   Listen
verb
Troll  v. t.  (past & past part. trolled; pres. part. trolling)  
1.
To move circularly or volubly; to roll; to turn. "To dress and troll the tongue, and roll the eye."
2.
To send about; to circulate, as a vessel in drinking. "Then doth she troll to the bowl." "Troll the brown bowl."
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?" "His sonnets charmed the attentive crowd, By wide-mouthed mortaltrolled aloud."
4.
To angle for with a trolling line, or with a book drawn along the surface of the water; hence, to allure.
5.
To fish in; to seek to catch fish from. "With patient angle trolls the finny deep."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Troll" Quotes from Famous Books



... rocks jutted into the loch in tumbled, broken masses, piled heedlessly one on the other, as if some troll of the mountain had begun in play to make a causeway for himself. The great stones, so old, so fiercely strong, stood knee-deep in the waters, over which they seemed to brood with so patient and indifferent a dignity that ...
— The Ashiel mystery - A Detective Story • Mrs. Charles Bryce

... old man?" he asked, more as if he were in jest than in earnest. "Shall I feed the fishes, or make this strange change with Estein into a troll, [Footnote: A kind of goblin] or werewolf, or whatsoever form he ...
— Vandrad the Viking - The Feud and the Spell • J. Storer Clouston

... longer. The thunderous threat of Ameinias, that he who refused a proffered relief must stand all day by the mast with an iron anchor on his shoulder, alone sufficed to make the malcontents give place. Yet after a little while the singing died. Breath was too precious to waste. It was mockery to troll of "AEolus's winds" whilst the sea was one motionless mirror of gray. The monotonous "beat," "beat" of the keleustes's hammer, and the creaking of the oars in their leathered holes alone broke the stillness that reigned through the length of the trireme. The penteconter ...
— A Victor of Salamis • William Stearns Davis

... thinking we should surely see the grim form of Sigurd loom gigantic and troll-like {iii} across the doorway; and the jarl half rose from his seat beside me, and cried out with ...
— King Alfred's Viking - A Story of the First English Fleet • Charles W. Whistler

... Marguerite?" said Gerald. "Alas the day! Because you really would do them so corkingly, you know, if only you should do them. Well, see here, I am going to give you a troll. You will ...
— The Merryweathers • Laura E. Richards

... broom To bind thy flowing hair; For thee the eglantine shall bloom, Whose fragrance fills the air. We'll sit beside yon wooded knoll, To hear the blackbird sing, And fancy in his merry troll ...
— Enthusiasm and Other Poems • Susanna Moodie

... does the muse desert thee? or is memory getting dull? You see the child is wilful in his melody, and must sing of loves and sunshine or he fails. Now touch us a stronger chord my men, and put life into your cadences, while I troll a sea air for the ...
— The Red Rover • James Fenimore Cooper

... him take all lives longest, Come fill us of the strongest, And I will drink a health to honest John; Come, pray thee, butler, fill the bowl, And let it round the table troll, When that is up, I'll tell ...
— In The Yule-Log Glow, Vol. IV (of IV) • Harrison S. Morris

... O cynical friend, the Wigwam now is Khalid's home. For was he not, in creaking boots and a slouch hat, ceremoniously married to Democracy? Ay, and after spending their honeymoon on the Stump and living another month or two with his troll among her People, he returns to his cellar to brood, not over the blank pages in his Text, nor over the disastrous results of the Campaign, but on the weightier matter of divorce. For although Politics and Romance, in the History of Human Intrigue, have often known and enjoyed the ...
— The Book of Khalid • Ameen Rihani

... cannikin, troll the cannikin, Toss the cannikin, turn the cannikin! Hold now, good son, and fill us a fresh can, That we may quaff it round ...
— Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age • Various

... at Comedy remind one vividly of Heine's image of his country in the dancing of Atta Troll. Lessing tried his hand at it, with a sobering effect upon readers. The intention to produce the reverse effect is just visible, and therein, like the portly graces of the poor old Pyrenean Bear poising and twirling on his right hind-leg and his left, consists the fun. Jean Paul ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... have communed with ourselves, with as great freedom, and as little fear of interruption, as if we had been crossing the Zahara. The caleche men too are a peculiar and happy race—attentive to their fares—masters of their profession—and with a cigar in their cheek dexter, will troll you Maltese ditties till your head aches. Their costume is striking. Their long red caps are thrown back over their necks—their black curls hang down on each side of the face—and a crimson, many-folded sash, girds in a ...
— A Love Story • A Bushman

... had known of the right princely sort. But concerning his traffic with Schamir, the chief talisman, and how through its aid he won to the Sun's Sister for a little while; and concerning his dealings with the handsome Troll-wife (in which affair the cat he bribed with butter and the elm-tree he had decked with ribbons helped him); and with that beautiful and dire Thuringian woman whose soul was a red mouse: we have in this place naught to do. Besides, the Foolish Prince had put aside such commerce when the Fairy ...
— The Cords of Vanity • James Branch Cabell et al

... sinker at Milton Lake, there being little or no current, and the trees as a rule keep off any wind. In the stream I generally drift down, letting my line float in front of the boat, and getting well down stream troll back up stream, to drift down again. For the benefit of the tyros I may here remark, that success in trolling for bass, I think, depends largely upon a perfect knowledge of the depth of water, and that the bait should be kept about eighteen inches from the bottom ...
— Black Bass - Where to catch them in quantity within an hour's ride from New York • Charles Barker Bradford

... sadness, thinking how happy she would be if she could but see him, and how all day long she had to go about alone, and it was so dull and solitary. "Oh!" cried the mother, in horror, "you are very likely sleeping with a troll! But I will teach you a way to see him. You shall have a bit of one of my candles, which you can take away with you hidden in your breast. Look at him with that when he is asleep, but take care not to let ...
— The Blue Fairy Book • Various

... all your letters," was the first thing he said; and when she looked up a little and laughed, he felt that she was the most roguish troll he could meet in a wood; but he was captured, and ...
— A Happy Boy • Bjornstjerne Bjornson

... at once, slipped quietly in after sundown, and took ship and prize with a rush, killing and throwing overboard such as resisted. In Sweden mothers hushed their crying children with his dreaded name; on the sea they came near to thinking him a troll, so sudden and unexpected were his onsets. But there was no witchcraft about it. He sailed swiftly because he was a skilled sailor and because he missed no opportunity to have the bottom of his ship scraped ...
— Hero Tales of the Far North • Jacob A. Riis

... change. One of the fleecy white clouds suddenly left the host in the deep blue above, dipped down from the sky, and swirling round and round as if it were a water spout, scratched and frayed the edge of the water like a fisher's troll. The carp saw and darted toward it. In a moment the fish was transformed into a white dragon, and, rising into the cloud, floated off toward Heaven. A streak or two of red fire, a gleam of terrible eyes, and the flash of white scales was all that ...
— Japanese Fairy World - Stories from the Wonder-Lore of Japan • William Elliot Griffis

... mother she wuz, would take little Delight and go with him. But after talkin' to Josiah, Whitfield concluded they would stay over one day more to go fishin'. So the very next mornin' he got a big roomy boat, and we sot out to troll for fish. The way they do this is to hitch a line on behind the boat and let it drag through the water and catch what comes to it. And as our boat swep' on over the glassy surface of the water that lay shinin' so smooth and level, not hintin' of the rocks and depths below, I methought, ...
— Samantha at Coney Island - and a Thousand Other Islands • Marietta Holley

... and said: "Ah, I forgot how keen-eyes thou art." And she stood silent a little while, as he looked on her and loved her sweetness. Then he said: "I am exceeding full of joy, but my body is uneasy; so I will now go and skin that troll who went so nigh to slay thee, and break up the carcase, if thou wilt promise to abide about the door of the house, and have thy sword and the spear ready to hand, and to don thine ...
— The Well at the World's End • William Morris

... a bull goose again,' said my father. 'Here, mother, try and teach this boy to think better, and not go and believe that every sound he hears is all troll and hobgoblin. Feathered wolves that fly, eh, Johannes? That kind of fowl has not been hatched yet, my boy. Now, the next time you hear a flight of fowl going south in the night, ...
— Steve Young • George Manville Fenn

... say that this same she-wolf was the mother of King Siggeir, who had turned herself into this likeness by troll's lore and witchcraft. ...
— The Story of the Volsungs, (Volsunga Saga) - With Excerpts from the Poetic Edda • Anonymous

... Dictionary—Wagner Lexikon—which made it possible in a moment to know the master's thoughts de omni re scibili: it had been his life's work. He was capable of reciting whole chapters of it at table, as the French provincials used to troll the songs of the Maid. He used also to publish in the Bayreuther Blaetter articles on Wagner and the Aryan Spirit. Of course, Wagner was to him the type of the pure Aryan, of whom the German race had remained the last inviolable ...
— Jean-Christophe, Vol. I • Romain Rolland

... is no true fisherman who is willing to fish only when fish are biting." The real angler will sit all day in a boat in a pouring rain, eagerly watching the point of the rod, which never for an instant swerves a half inch from the horizontal. The real angler will troll for miles with a hand line and a spinner, winding in the thirty-five dripping feet of [Page 3] the lure every ten minutes, to remove a weed, or "to see if she's still a-spinnin'." Vainly he hopes for the muskellunge who has just gone somewhere else, but, by the same token, ...
— How to Cook Fish • Olive Green

... allowed any decrease in the naval establishment. Let the present generation do as he did, with the modifications changed times and circumstances have introduced, and then, although we may not be able correctly to troll forth "Hearts of oak are our ...
— How Britannia Came to Rule the Waves - Updated to 1900 • W.H.G. Kingston

... troll upon the wheels Of yonder dancing cubes of mottled bone; And drown it not, like Egypt's royal harlot, Dissolving her rich pearl in the brimm'd wine-cup. These are the arts, Lothario, which shrink acres Into brief yards—bring sterling pounds to farthings, Credit ...
— The Fortunes of Nigel • Sir Walter Scott

... files of men and women, waving their decorated staffs, ever and anon indicating with a touch of the wand persons of the opposite sex, who under the rules must pay the forfeit demanded of them. The kissing, of course, goes by favor. The wand-bearers, as they move along, troll an ...
— Unwritten Literature of Hawaii - The Sacred Songs of the Hula • Nathaniel Bright Emerson

... dwelt for many weeks. Ling wore well as a sole friend and partner. Looking at the big, devoted fellow, Parr did not feel so revolted as at their first glimpse of each other. Ling had seemed so hairy, so misshapen, like a troll out of Gothic legends. But now ... he was only big and burly, and not so hairy as Parr had once supposed. As for his face, all tusk and jaw and no brow, where had Parr gotten such an idea of it? Homely it was, ...
— The Devil's Asteroid • Manly Wade Wellman

... has been strange since the troll took his daughter, three years ago," went on Torbek. He shivered in a way the winter had not caused. "Never does he smile, and his once open hand grasps tight about the silver and his men have poor reward and no thanks. Yes, strange—" His small frost-blue eyes shifted to Cappen Varra, ...
— The Valor of Cappen Varra • Poul William Anderson

... man-passioned! And when I turn me to my bed—my bed Dew-drenched and dark and stumbling, to which near Cometh no dream nor sleep, but alway Fear Breathes round it, warning, lest an eye once fain To close may close too well to wake again; Think I perchance to sing or troll a tune For medicine against sleep, the music soon Changes to sighing for the tale untold Of this house, not well mastered as of old. Howbeit, may God yet send us rest, and light The flame of good news flashed across ...
— Agamemnon • Aeschylus

... cheese-mites, beasts, buzzards and brigands, his fears of poison, and suspicions that they had "curdled his bronze"; his visitations by spirits and angels, mark him as a man who trod the borderland of sanity. If he did not like a woman or she did not like him—the same thing—she was a troll, wench, scullion, punk, trollop or hussy. He had such a beautiful vocabulary of names for folks he did not admire, that the translator is constantly put to straits to produce a product that will not be excluded ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 6 - Subtitle: Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Artists • Elbert Hubbard

... 12th was pitched, hundreds of fish played at its surface, keeping the water in constant commotion. They were in no wise disturbed by our presence and would turn leisurely over within two feet of the canoe. I ran out my troll as we paddled down the lake—but not a nibble did I get. The men said they ...
— A Woman's Way Through Unknown Labrador • Mina Benson Hubbard (Mrs. Leonidas Hubbard, Junior)

... ribbon of the Nile and the star-gazers[4] of Mesopotamia were reading future events from her towers of sun-dried bricks, Dravidian tribes were cultivating the rich mud of the Ganges valley, a slow-changing race. Did the lonely traveler, I wonder, troll the same air then as now to ward away evil spirits from the star-lit road? Did the Dravidian maiden do her sleek hair in the same knot at the nape of her brown neck, and poise the earthen pot with the same grace on her daily ...
— Lighted to Lighten: The Hope of India • Alice B. Van Doren

... of the Fairy Mythology, there is a legend of a farmer cheating a Troll in an argument respecting the crops that were to be grown on the hill within which the latter resided. It is there observed that Rabelais tells the same story of a farmer and the Devil. I think there can be no doubt that these are not independent fictions, but that the legend ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 190, June 18, 1853 • Various

... were the merest trifles, and lay down your life for a friend with an idle jest. You make nothing of yourself and all of others. You can suffer, and pretend that you enjoy it; and when your heart is breaking, you can force your voice to troll out verses from old songs as though your chief occupation in life were nonsense, and that alone. And this is the man," continued Talbot, in a dreamy tone, like that of one soliloquizing—"this is the man that I found by chance in my distress; the man that responded to my ...
— A Castle in Spain - A Novel • James De Mille

... of the smaller princes in the northern parts of Germany, whom it had probably considered as too insignificant to be worth the managing. They universally, therefore, established the reformation in their own dominions. The tyranny of Christiern II., and of Troll archbishop of Upsal, enabled Gustavus Vasa to expel them both from Sweden. The pope favoured the tyrant and the archbishop, and Gustavus Vasa found no difficulty in establishing the reformation in Sweden. ...
— An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations • Adam Smith

... Under favourable circumstances you may begin to troll with the Minnow about the middle ...
— The Teesdale Angler • R Lakeland

... they bent down to take the rose a big dense snowdrift came and carried them away 168 The Troll was quite willing, and before long he fell asleep and began snoring 176 As soon as they tugged at the rope, the Captain and the Lieutenant pulled up the Princesses, the one after the other 184 No sooner had he whistled than he heard a whizzing and a whirring from all quarters, and such a ...
— East of the Sun and West of the Moon - Old Tales from the North • Peter Christen Asbjornsen

... of a late Royal Commission I did my best to prevent the infliction of needless pain for any purpose, I think it is my duty to take this opportunity of expressing my regret at a condition of the law which permits a boy to troll for pike or set lines with live frog bait for idle amusement, and at the same time lays the teacher of that boy open to the penalty of fine and imprisonment if he uses the same animal for the purpose of exhibiting one of the most beautiful and instructive of physiological ...
— The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 2 • Leonard Huxley

... was singing at the top of his voice, a sea-song he had learnt of a mariner at the inn he frequented at Greenwich, with a troll at the end, taken up by Moll and me. And to hear his wife's voice bearing part in this rude song, made Mr. Godwin's heart to sink within him. Under cover of this noise, Simon mounted the stairs without hesitation, Mr. Godwin following at his heels, in a kind of sick bewilderment. 'Twas pitch ...
— A Set of Rogues • Frank Barrett

... for his forgotten lenses our Nimrod missed a fine eagle which swept over our heads at long range. So we returned to our island camp in no very good mood, but a successful troll for lake-trout, and a good supper off two fine fellows baked under the coals in birch jackets, sent us to bed in good spirits and with no regrets save for the ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 26, August, 1880 - of Popular Literature and Science • Various

... these were the sons of Thorir. When Grettir burst in he knew not who was there, he himself seemed huge of bulk, for his cape was frozen all over into ice; therefore the men took him to be some evil troll, and smote at him with anything that lay to hand; but Grettir put all blows aside, snatched up some firebrands, and swam therewith back to the ship. Grettir's comrades were mightily pleased, and bepraised him and ...
— The Book of Romance • Various

... Nature, from thy soul Fill the human hearts with gladness, Till their lives shall gladly troll Songs that banish all their sadness! Bathe their breasts with songs of love From the Edens found above, Till their lips shall sing the story Of their ...
— Oklahoma and Other Poems • Freeman E. Miller

... they please. It is a sunny morning: so use bright spoon-trolls, medium size. If the fish rise freely, twenty-five feet of line is enough to have out on the stern lines; and, as the ladies will use the poles, ten feet of line is enough for them. Don't forget, Mrs. Bangem, to keep your troll spinning just outside the swirl of the oar, and as near the surface of the water as possible. You know you will talk and forget all about it. Now we will start. If we get separated and it grows cloudy, change your ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, August, 1885 • Various

... the moss, a hole Leads to his home, the den wherein he sleeps; Lulled by near noises of the laboring mole Tunneling its mine—like some ungainly Troll— Or by the tireless cricket there that keeps Picking its rusty and monotonous lute; Or slower sounds of grass that creeps and creeps, And trees ...
— Poems • Madison Cawein

... yet, somehow, I don't think that he is very well off. There is nothing in his bungalow but guns, spears, and hunting trophies; he never goes home, and I have an idea that there is some heavy drain on his purse in the old country. But you should hear him troll a hunting song with his grand organ voice, and you would fancy him the richest man in the world, his note ...
— Twenty-One Days in India; and, the Teapot Series • George Robert Aberigh-Mackay

... twelve, and bang! up went the cover of the snuff-box, but it wasn't tobacco in it: no, but a little black Troll. It ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol. 2 • Charles Dudley Warner

... quod minim verum est, affers: Non enim val nostra lingua balenam, sed electionem siue delectum significat, verbo, Eg vel .i. eligo, vel deligo: vnde val, &c. At balena Hualur nobis vocatur: Vnde tu Trollhualur scribere debebas. Nec ver Troll Diabolum, vt tu interpretaris, sed Gigantes quosdam montanos significat. Vides igitur, quomodo in toto vocabulo turpiter, quod haud tamen mirum, erres. Leuis quidem illa in linguam nostram iniuria, in vnica tantum voce: quoniam plures, ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries - of the English Nation, v. 1, Northern Europe • Richard Hakluyt

... My lute doth troll the longings of my heart; Deep-rooted there Are forms so fair Whose mem'ry of my life ...
— 'A Comedy of Errors' in Seven Acts • Spokeshave (AKA Old Fogy)

... tear, whisk, zoom, swoosh, sweep, skim, brush; cut along, bowl along, barrel along, barrel; scorch, burn up the track; rush &c (be violent) 173; dash on, dash off, dash forward; bolt; trot, gallop, amble, troll, bound, flit, spring, dart, boom; march in quick time, march in double time; ride hard, get over the ground. hurry &c (hasten) 684; accelerate, put on; quicken; quicken one's pace, mend one's pace; clap ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... uneven, arms longer than his legs; a huge head, showing only beneath his enormous white hat large, solemn eyes and a prominent nose; the rest of his face covered with a snowy semicircle of beard falling low on his breast—a figure to recall the old legends of troll, brownie, and kobold."[183] By birth he was a Friend, but the Society in England disowned him on account of his revolutionary propensities. He took up residence in the West Indies, but was compelled ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917 • Various

... listen to thy cheerful voice. If our sport be worse, may our content be equal, and our praise, therefore, none the less. Father, if Master Stoddard, the great fisher of Tweedside, be with thee, greet him for me, and thank him for those songs of his, and perchance he will troll thee a catch of our ...
— Letters to Dead Authors • Andrew Lang

... are places where the salmon run and a gasboat trolling her battery of lines cannot go without loss of gear. The power boats cannot troll in shallows. They cannot operate in kelp without fouling. So they hold to deep open water and leave the kelp and shoals to ...
— Poor Man's Rock • Bertrand W. Sinclair

... head upheld he walked, And ever the rain drove down; And now and again to himself he talked In the streets of Danbury town. And now and again he'd stop and troll A stave of music that seemed to roll From the inmost depths of his ardent soul; But the wind took hold of the notes and tossed them And the few who chanced to ...
— The Vagabond and Other Poems from Punch • R. C. Lehmann

... interesting and enjoyable as the one to Vuna. On one occasion we visited the north part of the island, as well as Ngamia and other islands. We rowed nearly all the way close into shore and saw plenty of turtles. Ratu Lala started to troll with live bait, as we had come across several women fishing with nets, and on our approach they chanted out a greeting to Ratu Lala, and in return he helped himself to a lot of their fish. Ratu ...
— Wanderings Among South Sea Savages And in Borneo and the Philippines • H. Wilfrid Walker

... at the trout Lisle laid down. "They'll hardly carry us over to-morrow, and I only got a couple from the canoe with the troll. We've gained nothing by stopping here, and ...
— The Long Portage • Harold Bindloss

... spell of foul weather to men that have sailed the salt seas! Haul forward your stools, mates, and we'll have a concert and make all snug. I warrant some of you can troll a ditty, though ye be too modest to own it; and not being plagued wi' modesty myself, I'll heave ...
— Humphrey Bold - A Story of the Times of Benbow • Herbert Strang

... of my soul Are filled with laudatory airs, Such as the salaried bard should troll When he the Laureate laurels wears. And I am he who opened Hades, To harmless parsons and ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 103, October 22, 1892 • Various

... along the brawling stream, and across the waterfall—and ever as he goes there comes from him a continued stream of talk concerning the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, and other kindred matters. Surely if we two were seen by any human eyes, it must have been supposed that some gnome, or troll, or kelpie was luring the listener to his doom. The worst of such affairs as this was the consciousness that, when left, the old man would continue walking on until, weariness overcoming him, he would take his rest, wherever that happened, like some poor mendicant. He used ...
— The Book-Hunter - A New Edition, with a Memoir of the Author • John Hill Burton

... Charles and Mary Lamb The Plowman Who Found Content Julia Darrow Cowles The Farmer and the Troll Adapted from a ...
— Tell Me Another Story - The Book of Story Programs • Carolyn Sherwin Bailey

... their blushes, bowed and stood back; the three students bowed very low, in the humble hope of making an impression of extreme good-breeding; then there was a thin, dark-skinned man with full eyes, an odd creature, like a child, and like a troll, quick, detached; he bowed slightly; his companion, a large fair young man, stylishly dressed, blushed to the ...
— Women in Love • D. H. Lawrence

... a bridge, over a river which they had to cross, and under the bridge lived a great ugly Troll with eyes as big as saucers, and a nose as long ...
— East O' the Sun and West O' the Moon • Gudrun Thorne-Thomsen

... no more skill in it than in sitting in an omnibus. But for trolling, many a boat would come home "clean" in the evening, on days of calm, or when, for other reasons of their own, the trout refuse to take the artificial fly. Yet there are men at Loch Leven who troll all day, and poor sport it must be, as a trout of a pound or so has no chance on a trolling-rod. This method is inimical to fly-fishing, but is such a consolation to the inefficient angler that one ...
— Angling Sketches • Andrew Lang

... the boldest of the crew When deed of danger was to do. He grieved that day their games cut short, And marred the dicer's brawling sport, And shouted loud, 'Renew the bowl! And, while a merry catch I troll, Let each the buxom chorus bear, Like brethren ...
— The Lady of the Lake • Sir Walter Scott

... Commission, I gladly did my best to prevent the infliction of needless pain, for any purpose; I think it is my duty to take this opportunity of expressing my regret at a condition of the law which permits a boy to troll for pike, or set lines with live frog bait, for idle amusement; and, at the same time, lays the teacher of that boy open to the penalty of fine and imprisonment, if he uses the same animal for the purpose of exhibiting one of the most beautiful and instructive of physiological ...
— Science & Education • Thomas H. Huxley

... rock-troll her weight did throw At Skeggi's throat a while ago: Over the battle ogress ran The red blood of the serving-man; Her deadly iron mouth did gape Above him, till clean out of shape She tore his head and let out life: And certainly ...
— The Story of Grettir The Strong • Translated by Eirikr Magnusson and William Morris

... the especial friends and companions in arms of the Amal, Goderic the son of Ermenric, and Agilmund the son of Cniva, who both, like the Amal, boasted a descent from gods; and last, but not least, that most important and all but sacred personage, Smid the son of Troll, reverenced for cunning beyond the sons of men; for not only could he make and mend all matters, from a pontoon bridge to a gold bracelet, shoe horses and doctor them, charm all diseases out of man and beast, carve runes, interpret war-omens, foretell weather, raise the winds, and finally, conquer ...
— Hypatia - or, New Foes with an Old Face • Charles Kingsley

... possible Of speaking truth, to mouths like mine, at least. How look a brother in the face and say "Thy right is wrong, eyes hast thou, yet art blind, Thine ears are stuffed and stopped, despite their length, And, oh, the foolishness thou countest faith!" Say this as silvery as tongue can troll— The anger of the man may be endured, The shrug, the disappointed eyes of him Are not so bad to bear—but here's the plague, That all this trouble comes of telling truth, Which truth, by when it reaches him, looks ...
— Practice Book • Leland Powers

... with taking a log and straddling the same?" asked Tom. "Three of us could manage it, one to troll with a spoon, another to cast near the shore and the third ...
— The Boy Scouts of Lenox - Or The Hike Over Big Bear Mountain • Frank V. Webster

... "I'm not going to stand in the middle of Broadway and whistle for him either, or throw out a hook and line and troll. I think we will go first to Mrs. Hemmingway's, if you will kindly give ...
— Wilt Thou Torchy • Sewell Ford

... he's deep in slumber. The sound of a small boat won't disturb him, because he's used to the noise of motors from crabbers. We'll hope there is no guard on the place. If there is, we'll be fishing. Better have the rods ready. One of you can sit in back and troll from there." ...
— The Flying Stingaree • Harold Leland Goodwin

... Troll the bowl and drink to me, and troll the bowl again, And put a brown toast in [the] pot for Philip Fleming's brain. And I shall toss it to and fro, even round about the house-a: Good hostess, now let it be so, I brink ...
— The Growth of English Drama • Arnold Wynne

... island—"Grettir's lairs," as they are called, it would seem, to this day—sometimes countenanced for a short time by well-willing men of position, sometimes dwelling with supernatural creatures,—Hallmund, a kindly spirit or cave-dweller with a hospitable daughter, or the half-troll giant Thorir, a person of daughters likewise. But his case grows steadily worse. Partly owing to sheer ill-luck and Glam's curse, partly, as the saga-writer very candidly tells us, because he "was not an easy man to live withal," his tale of slayings and the feuds thereto appertaining grows ...
— The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory - (Periods of European Literature, vol. II) • George Saintsbury

... seem singularly modern to the reader of to-day. It is this peculiar modern significance and application that has been one of the two reasons for presenting to the English public the first popular edition of Heine's lyrico-satiric masterpiece "Atta Troll." The other reason is the fine quality of the translation, made by one who is himself well known as a poet, my friend Herman Scheffauer. I venture to say that it renders in a remarkable degree the elusive brilliance, wit, and ...
— Atta Troll • Heinrich Heine

... Oswald, as they lay down side by side. "Never have I felt so free, since Otterburn—never, indeed, since that unfortunate day when I was wounded, and conceived the fatal idea of becoming a monk. Two or three times, the impulse to troll out a trooper's song was so strong in me, that I had to clap my hand over my ...
— Both Sides the Border - A Tale of Hotspur and Glendower • G. A. Henty

... Notely does not want to be released. He loves me, not Grace Langham. You know how it is with men. If I should go to your house and say to him, 'Come with me; come down to my father's house, since there is no other way, and help troll, and haul the traps, and make the nets, and be with ...
— Vesty of the Basins • Sarah P. McLean Greene

... botany A hundred wonders shall diskiver, We'll flog and troll in strid and hole, And skim the cream of lake and river, Blow Snowdon! give me Ireland for my pennies, Hurrah! for salmon, grilse, ...
— Andromeda and Other Poems • Charles Kingsley

... had ill days Because the heart within him seethed with blood That would not be allayed with any toil, Whether of war or hunting or the oar, But was anhungered for some joy untried: For the brain grew not weary with the limbs, But, while they slept, still hammered like a Troll, Building all night a bridge of solid dream Between him and some purpose of his soul, Or will to find a purpose. With the dawn 10 The sleep-laid timbers, crumbled to soft mist, Denied all foothold. But the dream remained, And every night with yellow-bearded kings His ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell

... of a kittenish hoyden for a mistress. Abroad too early, dame, and strong ale before sunrise! These have stolen away your wits and made ye hold strange discourse. Sewers—side-walkers forsooth—troll ...
— The Panchronicon • Harold Steele Mackaye

... Your friendly aid implore; Slight you the piteous strains That from their bosoms pour? Shall it be told in story, Or troll'd in burning song, New England's boasted ...
— The Liberty Minstrel • George W. Clark

... group would gather on the steerage deck and sing. A black-haired Italian, with shirt open at the throat, would strike a pose and fling out a wild serenade; or a fat, placid German would remove his pipe long enough to troll forth a mighty drinking-song. Whenever the air was a familiar one, the entire circle joined in the chorus. At such times Sandy was always on hand, singing with the loudest and telling his story ...
— Sandy • Alice Hegan Rice

... I troll you no song that will hinder you long, I pen you no ponderous treatise, The theme that I sing is a gossamer thing As light as ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, June 25, 1919 • Various

... in the week," except on board the Ruby. How he could shuffle and spring, and whirl, and whisk, and snap his fingers! He looked as if he was made of India-rubber, filled with quicksilver. And then he had a very good voice and a fair notion of singing, and right merrily he could troll forth some of those stirring sea-songs which have animated the gallant tars of Old England to perform deeds of the greatest heroism, and have served to beguile and soothe many an hour of their existence on the ocean, far away from home and all its ...
— True Blue • W.H.G. Kingston

... man, and not only me, but the savage warrior Umhlopekazi, commonly called Umslopogaas of the Axe, who, with Hans, a Hottentot, was my companion upon that adventure. There were like things equally incredible, such as her appearance, when all seemed lost, in the battle with the troll-like Rezu. To omit these, the sum of it was that I had been shamefully duped, and if anyone finds himself in that position, as most people have at one time or another in their lives, Wisdom suggests that he had better keep ...
— She and Allan • H. Rider Haggard

... interloper entered the parish. He was more dangerous, in the opinion of the session, than even the Pope of Rome himself; for he came to teach the flagrant heresy of Universal Redemption, a most consolatory doctrine to the sinner that is loth to repent, and who loves to troll his iniquity like a sweet morsel under his tongue. Mr Martin Siftwell, who was the last ta'en on elder, and who had received a liberal and judicious education, and was, moreover, naturally possessed of a quick penetration, observed, in speaking of this new ...
— The Annals of the Parish • John Galt

... turn'd out the whole House-full Of Peers, as dang'rous and unusefull? 180 So CROMWELL, with deep oaths and vows, Swore all the Commons out o' th' House; Vow'd that the red-coats would disband, Ay, marry wou'd they, at their command; And troll'd them on, and swore, and swore, 185 Till th' army turn'd them out of door. This tells us plainly what they thought, That oaths and swearing go for nought, And that by them th' were only meant To serve for an expedient. ...
— Hudibras • Samuel Butler

... mines from the beginning. The old Teutonic Pan was far more musical and awe-inspiring than his Grecian counterpart The Noon-spirit of the North was more wild than that of the South. How all the ancient North was alive in its Troll-haunted hillocks, where clanged the anvil of the faery hill-smith, and danced and banqueted the Gnome and Troll,—and in its streams and springs, musical with the harps of moist-haired Elle-women and mermaids, who, ethnic daemons ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, Issue 15, January, 1859 • Various

... gone, his troll, with the face of an angel? Where had she gone? Where would she go, except to her devil's lover at ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... of the day as a writer of French feuilletons. His French prose style was almost equal to his brilliant command of German. Not until 1844 did Heine bring out any new German poems. Then he published the epic satires "Germany, a Winter's Tale," and "Atta Troll, a Summer Night's Dream," two works which aroused intense indignation in Germany. Much was made of the fact that Heine accepted an annual pension of 4,800 francs from the government of Louis Philippe. On ...
— A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year - Volume Two (of Three) • Edwin Emerson

... claimed a minute to plead with her and try to induce her to leave the path she was pursuing, and go with him. But at that instant the voice of some one approaching sounded louder, and the tones of Sergias could be distinguished as he tried to troll forth the catch of a drinking melody. There was no time to lose. With a farewell pressure of her arm about Cleotos's neck, Leta pushed him through the aperture into the dark back street; and then, leaving the keys in the locks, turned back ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol 6, No 5, November 1864 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... be a shaven priest, For all his sloth-won tythe: But while to me this breath is leased, And these old limbs are lithe,— Ere Death hath marked me for his feast, And felled me with his scythe,— I'll troll my song, The leaves among, All in ...
— The Baron's Yule Feast: A Christmas Rhyme • Thomas Cooper

... a sly dog, did not sing any of the modern songs that he was wont to troll out at the club, or on the march, but chose for his second number a song that subalterns sang to pianos, to banjos and guitars, and even without accompaniment, the favorite song of the subaltern, "A Warrior Bold." ...
— Betty at Fort Blizzard • Molly Elliot Seawell

... seeking Odd,' she said, 'but she would help them.' So they turned back again. Geirrid had a blue cloak on her. Now when the party was seen and reported to Katla, and it was said that they were thirteen in number, and one had on a coloured dress, Katla exclaimed, 'That troll Geirrid is come! I shall not be able to throw a glamour over their eyes any more.' She started up from her place and lifted the cushion of the seat, and there was a hole and a cavity beneath: into this she thrust Odd, clapped the cushion over him, and sat down, saying ...
— The Book of Were-Wolves • Sabine Baring-Gould

... on the ground, And each one troll'd a song; I tell to ye for verity He silenced them ...
— The Serpent Knight - and other ballads - - - Translator: George Borrow • Thomas J. Wise

... Maaltrost, syng med oss i lund dronningi i saelan blund: Byssam, byssam barne, gryta heng i jarne. Troll og nykk, gakk burt med dykk denne saele skymingsstund! So god ...
— An Essay Toward a History of Shakespeare in Norway • Martin Brown Ruud

... goodly painted walls daubed and smeared with wicked tokens of the Alien murderers: the floor, once bright with polished stones of the mountain, and strewn with sweet-smelling flowers, was now as foul as the den of the man-devouring troll of the heaths. From the fair-carven roof of oak and chestnut-beams hung ugly knots of rags and shapeless images of the sorcery of the Dusky Men. And furthermore, and above all, from the last tie-beam of the roof over the dais dangled four ...
— The Roots of the Mountains • William Morris

... that I will allow Leif's property to be damaged, Egil the Black. Would you choke him? Loose him, or I will send you to the Troll, body and bones!" ...
— The Thrall of Leif the Lucky • Ottilie A. Liljencrantz

... you say, nor sing, Nor troll a lilting stave; And when the rest are cracking jokes He's silent as ...
— Laura Secord, the heroine of 1812. - A Drama. And Other Poems. • Sarah Anne Curzon

... "You will troll as formerly? Our magnificent maskinonge are polite as guests for a wedding. Yesterday I took one of ...
— The Young Seigneur - Or, Nation-Making • Wilfrid Chateauclair

... Gimp who moved ahead of him. Looking out, Frank saw what was certainly Ramos, already straddling a drum marked with a huge red M.R., riding it like a jaunty troll on a seahorse. He saw the Kuzaks dive for their initialled drums, big men not yet as apt in this new game as in football, but grimly determined to learn fast. The motion was all as ...
— The Planet Strappers • Raymond Zinke Gallun

... cured merely by recognizing him while in his brute shape. A Swedish legend tells of a cottager who, on entering the forest one day without recollecting to say his Patter Noster, got into the power of a Troll, who changed him into a wolf. For many years his wife mourned him as dead. But one Christmas eve the old Troll, disguised as a beggarwoman, came to the house for alms; and being taken in and kindly ...
— Myths and Myth-Makers - Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology • John Fiske

... the two stories. The other two supernatural feats are coupled, just in the same way as two of the feats of Beowulf are. It is two fights, one in a hall and one under a waterfall, with two monsters of one family. The fight with the troll-wife in the hall is a true parallel to Beowulf's fight with Grendel; but the fight with the troll in the cavern under the force is in great essentials and in minute details so identical with Beowulf's underwater ...
— Anglo-Saxon Literature • John Earle

... boy like me do a great Troll like you?' answered Pinkel. 'Let me go, I pray you, with my brothers. I will promise never to hurt you.' And at last the witch let him go, and he followed his ...
— The Orange Fairy Book • Various

... the glass, And merrily troll the glee, For he who won't drink till he wink is an ass, So neighbor I drink to thee. Merrily, merrily puddle thy nose, Until it right rosy shall be; For a jolly red nose, I speak under the rose, Is a ...
— Tales of a Traveller • Washington Irving

... should set hands on his war gear. And we hold that the ghost of a man hides near his body for many days, and therefore see that at hand is set the food that may be needful if the ghost hungers and will come back for a space to eat. Else he may wander forth, troll-like and terrible, to seek ...
— A Sea Queen's Sailing • Charles Whistler

... did not have prophetic power; those of Scandinavia, like the Norse Fates, did have it. The troll-wives of Scandinavia were like the witches of Germany—they were cannibals, especially relishing children, like the witch in Hansel ...
— The Book of Hallowe'en • Ruth Edna Kelley

... he could speak again, "never say more that you fear troll, or nix, or ghost—for you have done what you told me but half an hour ago was ...
— King Olaf's Kinsman - A Story of the Last Saxon Struggle against the Danes in - the Days of Ironside and Cnut • Charles Whistler

... a broader "swathe," than any man upon the farm. Beside all which he has an immense deal of information. He knows in the spring where all the crows'-nests are to be found; he tells Frank where the foxes burrow; he has even shot two or three raccoons in the swamps; he knows the best season to troll for pickerel; he has a thorough understanding of bee-hunting; he can tell the ownership of every stray heifer that appears upon the road: indeed scarce an inquiry is made, or an opinion formed, on any of these subjects, or on such kindred ones as the weather, ...
— Dream Life - A Fable Of The Seasons • Donald G. Mitchell

... signals which the skies are making to them. A party of Kelantan fisher folk nearly came by their death a year or two ago by reason of such carelessness. One of them is a friend of mine, and he told me the tale. Eight of them put to sea in a jalak to troll for fish, and ran before a light breeze, with two score of lines trailing glistening spoon-baits in their wake. The fish were extraordinarily active, itself a pretty sure sign that a storm was not far off, but the men were too busy pulling in the lines, knocking the fish ...
— In Court and Kampong - Being Tales and Sketches of Native Life in the Malay Peninsula • Hugh Clifford

... beautiful figures in poetry. Peer deserts her, and she lives in the hut alone and grows an old woman while her lover roams the world, seeking everywhere and through the wildest adventures the satisfaction of his Self, acting everywhere on the Troll's motto, "To thyself be enough," and finding everywhere his major premiss turned against him, to his own discomfiture, by an ironical fate. We have one glimpse of Solveig, meanwhile, in a little scene of eight lines. She is now a middle-aged woman, up in her forest hut in the far north. ...
— Adventures in Criticism • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... on in silence, as if she had become frightened. It was beginning to get dark; everything that had looked so rosy a while ago was now either blue or gray. Here and there in the forest could be seen a shiny leaf that gleamed in the twilight like the red eye of a troll. ...
— Jerusalem • Selma Lagerlof

... stories in the volume, Paul's Case, A Wagner Matinee, The Sculptor's Funeral, "A Death in the Desert," are re-printed from the author's first book of stories, entitled "The Troll Garden," published ...
— Youth and the Bright Medusa • Willa Cather

... spoke and turned her sumptuous head with eyes Of shining expectation fixt on mine. Then while I dragged my brains for such a song, Cyril, with whom the bell-mouthed glass had wrought, Or mastered by the sense of sport, began To troll a careless, careless tavern-catch Of Moll and Meg, and strange experiences Unmeet for ladies. Florian nodded at him, I frowning; Psyche flushed and wanned and shook; The lilylike Melissa drooped her brows; 'Forbear,' the Princess ...
— The Princess • Alfred Lord Tennyson

... they nod and wink, Even as good fellows should do; They shall not miss to have the bliss Good ale doth bring men to; And all poor souls that have scour'd bowls, Or have them lustily troll'd, God save the lives of them and their wives Whether they be young or old. Back and side go bare, go bare; Both foot and hand go cold; But, belly, God send thee good ale enough, Whether it be new ...
— English Songs and Ballads • Various

... Ironwood and rears Fenri's children; one of them all, in troll's shape, shall be the sun's destroyer. He shall feed on the lives of death-doomed men; with red blood he shall redden the seat of the Gods. The sunshine shall grow black, all winds will be unfriendly ...
— The Edda, Vol. 1 - The Divine Mythology of the North, Popular Studies in Mythology, - Romance, and Folklore, No. 12 • Winifred Faraday

... I have known to go about with troll-my-dames; I knew him once a servant of the prince; I cannot tell, good sir, for which of his virtues it was, but he was certainly ...
— The Winter's Tale - [Collins Edition] • William Shakespeare

... troll cel' er y new' fan gled thatch chink' ing as par' a gus im mense' sauce' pan de mol' ish ing sa' vor y pat' terns ag' ...
— De La Salle Fifth Reader • Brothers of the Christian Schools

... old gentleman, much the most excited, puffed—"eh, Brandon? He's a boy, this young ass! Do you mean to tell me a boy can go and marry when he pleases, and any troll he pleases, and the marriage is good? If I thought that I'd turn every woman off my premises. I would! from the housekeeper to the scullery-maid. I'd have no woman near ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... there was hardly any reasonable suggestion I had to make for beguiling the time that my bookseller did not protest against it, and when finally I produced my "Newcastle Fisher's Garlands" from my basket, and began to troll those spirited lines beginning ...
— The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac • Eugene Field

... are so delightful (stanzas one, two, and the last), and the old Tune of 'Troll, troll, the bonny brown Bowl' so pretty, and (with some addition) so appropriate, I think, that I fancied others beside Friends might like to have them together. But, if you don't approve, the whole thing shall be quashed. Which I ought to have asked before: but I thought your ...
— Letters of Edward FitzGerald in Two Volumes - Vol. II • Edward FitzGerald

... 600 tons and 152 men, carrying ten pieces of brass and twenty of iron ordnance. In this ship was Cornelius Jacobson, who was counsellor to admiral Le Hermite, but the ship was immediately commanded by captain Adrian Troll. ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume X • Robert Kerr

... moping in the dark mountain like Prince Fortune, while Eternity sang to him of the great wonder. The spirits of evil had carried him away into the mountains; that was all. And now they had set him free again, believing that he had become a troll like all his predecessors. But Pelle was not bewitched. He had already consumed many things in his growth, and this was added to the rest. What did a little confinement signify as compared with the slow drip, drip, of centuries? Had he not been born ...
— Pelle the Conqueror, Complete • Martin Andersen Nexo

... the bowl and drink to me, and troll the bowl again, And put a brown toast in [the] pot for Philip Fleming's brain. And I shall toss it to and fro, even round about the house-a: Good hostess, now let it be so, I brink ...
— The Growth of English Drama • Arnold Wynne

... Snowball continued to "troll" his line in the most approved fashion; and was soon again joined by his brother "piscator," who, after settling the scores with the second fish he had caught, had adjusted a fresh bait, and once more flung his line ...
— The Ocean Waifs - A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea • Mayne Reid

... consider this method of fishing a fair way in England," said Hardy; "it is adopted by poachers, to steal fish from private ponds, and it is not popular with anglers. The approved method is to troll for pike." ...
— A Danish Parsonage • John Fulford Vicary

... the country dance, the Ledder-te-spetch, as it was called, with its one, two, three—heel and toe—cut and shuffle. And his strong voice, that was answered oftenest by the echo of the mountain cavern, was sometimes heard to troll out a snatch of a song at the village inn. But Ralph, though having an inclination to convivial pleasures, was naturally of a serious, even of a solemn temperament. He was a rude son of a rude country,—rude ...
— The Shadow of a Crime - A Cumbrian Romance • Hall Caine

... We tried the troll in Mountaineer Lake, but caught nothing. Apparently there was nothing there but trout, of which fish I caught eight at the inlet. I shot with my pistol a muskrat that was swimming in the lake, but George ...
— The Lure of the Labrador Wild • Dillon Wallace

... from Carnarvonshire to Lapland, where this story is told with no great variation. A clergyman's wife in Swedish Lappmark, the cleverest midwife in all Sweden, was summoned one fine summer's evening to attend a mysterious being of Troll race and great might, called Vitra. At this unusual call she took counsel with her husband, who, however, deemed it best for her to go. Her guide led her into a splendid building, the rooms whereof were as clean and elegant as those of very ...
— The Science of Fairy Tales - An Inquiry into Fairy Mythology • Edwin Sidney Hartland

... amiss to trace it through some of its forms. In a Norse story[126] a Giant's heart lies in an egg, inside a duck, which swims in a well, in a church, on an island. With this may be compared another Norse tale,[127] in which a Haugebasse, or Troll, who has carried off a princess, informs her that he and all his companions will burst asunder when above them passes "the grain of sand that lies under the ninth tongue in the ninth head" of a certain dead dragon. The grain of ...
— Russian Fairy Tales - A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore • W. R. S. Ralston

... and godlets, there will be nothing wanting but the Muse. I think of the verses like Mark Twain; sometimes I wish fulsomely to belaud you; sometimes to insult your city and fellow-citizens; sometimes to sit down quietly, with the slender reed, and troll a few staves of Panic ecstasy - but fy! fy! as my ancestors observed, the last is too easy for a man of my ...
— The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson - Volume 1 • Robert Louis Stevenson

... behold, From sky to earth it slanted, And pois'd therein a Bird so bold— Sweet bird! thou wert enchanted! He sank, he rose, he twinkled, he troll'd, Within that shaft of sunny mist: His Eyes of Fire, his Beak of Gold, All else of Amethyst! And thus he sang: Adieu! Adieu! Love's dreams prove seldom true. Sweet month of May! we must away! Far, far away! ...
— A Publisher and His Friends • Samuel Smiles



Words linked to "Troll" :   mouth, round, circulate, music, verbalise, roll, Scandinavia, fisherman's lure, troller, utter, verbalize, sing, praise, wheel, talk, fish lure, mythical monster



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