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troop

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Troop

English

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A troop train in Canada during World War I.

Etymology

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Attested in English since 1545, from French troupe (back-formation of troupeau, diminutive of Medieval Latin troppus "flock") and Middle French trouppe (from Old French trope (“band, company, troop”)), both of Germanic origin from Frankish *þorp (“assembly, gathering”), from Proto-Germanic *þurpą (“village, land, estate”), from Proto-Indo-European *treb- (“dwelling, settlement”).

Doublet of troupe, and possibly also of thorp, dorp, and trip. Cognate with German Dorf (“village”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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troop (plural troops)

  1. (collective) A collection of people; a number; a multitude (in general).
  2. (military) A small unit of cavalry or armour commanded by a captain, corresponding to a platoon or company of infantry.
  3. A detachment of soldiers or police, especially horse artillery, armour, or state troopers.
  4. (chiefly in the plural) A group of soldiers; military forces.
  5. (nonstandard) An individual soldier or member of a military force; a trooper.
    • 2018 August 8, Donald R. White, Death In a Lonely Place, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 82:
      One American M48 was slightly grazed and one American troop lightly wounded.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Victor Grant-Lawrence, Conspiracy Theories And Stuff, Lulu.com, →ISBN:
      Although the mission failed, at least 5 ISIL militants were killed, however 1 American troop was wounded. According to the reports, Jordan had a role in the operation and that one Jordanian soldier had been wounded as well.
    • 2022, CNN, First Russian troop to speak out publicly against Putin’s war. Hear what he has to say (archived)
  6. (nonstandard) A company of actors; a troupe.
    • 1784, William Coxe, Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden and Denmark:
      In order to form the new troop to a greater degree of perfection, the four principal actors were placed in the seminary of the cadets
  7. (scouting) A chapter of a national girl or boy scouts organization, consisting of one or more patrols of 6 to 8 youngsters each.
    • Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell (1920) Aids To Scoutmastership‎[1], page 6: “It is the Patrol System that makes the Troop, and all Scouting for that matter, a real co-operative effort.”
  8. (collective) A group of monkeys.
  9. A group of meerkat families living together.
  10. A particular roll of the drum; a quick march.
  11. (mycology) A group of mushrooms that are close but not close enough to be called a cluster.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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troop (third-person singular simple present troops, present participle trooping, simple past and past participle trooped)

  1. To move in numbers; to come or gather in crowds or troops.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […] , down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.
  2. To march on; to go forward in haste.
  3. To move or march as if in a crowd.
    The children trooped into the room.

Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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References

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  • “troop” in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2004.
  • Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “troop”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

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Dutch

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Etymology

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From Latin tropus.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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troop f (plural tropen, diminutive troopje n)

  1. (music, literature, linguistics) trope
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