troop definition

English troop definition

Etymology

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 and dorp. Cognate with German Dorf (“village”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /tɹuːp/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /tɹup/
• Rhymes: -uːp
• Homophone: troupe

Noun

troop (plural troops)

1. (collective) A collection of people; a number; a multitude (in general).
   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene iii]:

     That which should accompany old age — / As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends — / I must not look to have.

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.
   • c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i], page 147, column 2:

     Ah, knovv you not the Citie fauours them, / And they haue troupes of Souldiers at their beck?

   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene iii]:

     Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars.

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 1, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323:

     His troops moved to victory with the precision of machines.

5. (nonstandard) An individual soldier or member of a military force.
   • 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 baboons.
9. A group of meerkat families living together.
10. A particular roll of the drum; a quick march.
11. (mycology) Mushrooms that are in a close group but not close enough to be called a cluster.

Derived terms

• troop carrier
• trooper
• troop horse
• troopship
• troop train

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 4293071:

     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

• troop the colour (British, military)

Translations

See also

• Appendix:English collective nouns

References

• “troop” in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2004.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2022), “troop”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• Porto, Proto, Topor, porto, porto-, proot, proto, proto-, tropo, tropo-

Dutch troop definition

Etymology

From Latin tropus.

Pronunciation

• Audio

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Noun

troop f (plural tropen, diminutive troopje n)

1. (music, literature, linguistics) trope