troop

See also: Troop

English

Etymology

Attested in English since 1545, from French troupe, from Back-formation from troupeau, from Middle French trope, troupe, from Old French trope, trupe, of unknown origin.

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

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /tɹuːp/
    • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Rhymes: -uːp
  • Homophone: troupe

Noun

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. (military, 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

Translations

Verb

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

Translations

See also

  • Appendix:English collective nouns

References

Anagrams

Dutch

Etymology

From Latin tropus.

Pronunciation

  • Audio:(file)

Noun

troop f (plural tropen, diminutive troopje n)

  1. (music, literature, linguistics) trope
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