Also 6 trowell, 7 trole, troul, trowle, 7–9 trowl. [app. f. TROLL v.; but in some uses the derivation is uncertain.]
1. The act of trolling; a going or moving round; routine or repetition.
1705. Rowe, Biter, I. i. Make up the Troll of the Sentence, as merrily conceited Persons are us’d to do.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 274. The troll of their categorical table night have informed them that there was something else … besides substance and quantity.
2. A song the parts of which are sung in succession; a round, a catch.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk., Little Britain (1865), 306. The famous old drinking trowl from Gammer Gurton’s Needle.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xix. 233. It is sad … to miss … the joyous troll of his ballads.
† 3. A little wheel; spec. an angler’s reel or winch on a fishing-rod. Obs.
[Cf. OF. trueil (Godef., Compl.), F. treuil windlass, winch.]
1570. Levins, Manip., 57/15. A Trowell, rotula.
1662. Venables, Experienced Angler, iv. 47. With your troul wind up your line till you think you have it almost streight.
1670–1. Act 22 – 23 Chas. II., c. 25 § 6. If any person … shall … use any … Nett … Angle, Haire Noose, Troll or Speare.
4. Angling. a. The method of trolling in fishing for pike, etc.: see TROLL v. 13.
1681. Chetham, Angler’s Vade-m., xli. § 7 (1689), 312. It’s not so good for the Trowl as snap.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 324/2. Trowl, a fishing for a Pike: and this is by walking, and the line to run on a winch, that it may be winded up, or let out at pleasure.
1794. Sporting Mag., III. 247. Both at trowl and snap, cut away one of the fins.
1847. T. Brown, Mod. Farriery, 902. At both troll and snap some persons have two or more swivels to their line.
b. A lure used in trolling, as a trolling-spoon (see TROLLING vbl. sb. 4).
1869. Cornh. Mag., April, 419. The many artificial trolls which have been … invented for salmon and trout angling.
5. A kind of low cart: = TROLLEY sb. 1. local.
1663. [implied in trollful: see below].
1810. Hull Improv. Act, 56. Any cart waggon sledge troll dray.
1870. Murray’s Handbk. E. Counties, 224/2. They [the ‘rows’ of Yarmouth] are traversed by … a sort of horse-wheelbarrow, called ‘trolls’ or ‘trolly-carts.’
1882. Buckland, Notes & Jottings, 192. When the trawlers [at Yarmouth] come in laden with fish they transfer them to very large boats … and thence into trolls, which are backed into the water.
6. attrib. and Comb.: troll-line = trawl-line (see TRAWL sb. 4); troll-plate (see quot.).
1888. Earll, in Goode, Amer. Fishes, 195. The smack fishermen of Charleston catch a few on *troll-lines during … spring and early summer.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Troll-plate (Machinery), a rotating disk employed to effect the simultaneous convergence or divergence of a number of objects; such as screw-dies in a stock, or the jaws of a universal chuck.
Hence Trollful, as much as fills a troll (sense 5).
1663. P. Henry, Diaries & Lett. (1882), 143, August 1. Hay carry’d in out of ye great meadow, three trolefuls.
