subs. (various).—1. Imprisonment (thieves’); (2) = child-bed, pregnancy (conventional); (3) = a TO-DO (q.v.): e.g., ‘What’s the TROUBLE?’ = ‘What’s going on?’ Hence IN TROUBLE = (1) arrested, QUODDED (q.v.); (2) pregnant, LUMPY (q.v.): spec. got with a bastard; TO GET INTO TROUBLE = ‘to be found out and punished’ (GROSE).
1555. CAVENDISH, Cardinal Wolsey [SINGER], 382. [The phrase] be IN TROUBLE [is used of a man imprisoned].
1871. Daily Telegraph, 4 Dec. A friendly lead for the benefit of Bill, who is just out of his TROUBLE. Ibid. (1885), 16 Nov. He would have GOT INTO TROUBLE if the old people hadn’t helped him out of it.
1899. M. JOHNSTON, The Old Dominion, vii. My friend has been IN TROUBLE.… He will not make the worse conspirator for that.
1900. GRIFFITHS, Fast and Loose, xxxi. ‘It would be worse for everyone if I got into TROUBLE.’ ‘What are you talking about TROUBLE for?… While we are hustling the screws you … lead him off.’
Also in combination: TROUBLE-GUSSET (-GIBLETS or -GUTS) = the penis: see PRICK; TROUBLE-HOUSE = a disturber of family concord; TROUBLE-MIRTH = a wet-blanket, spoil-sport, mar-all; TROUBLE-REST = an element of discord, sickness, anything tending to unhappiness or discomfort; TROUBLE-STATE (or TOWN) = a rebel, an agitator, a ‘drunk and disorderly.’ Also PROVERBIAL SAYINGS, ‘That horse is TROUBLED with corns’ (i.e., foundered); ‘TROUBLES never come singly’ (see quot. 1509).
[1509. BARCLAY, Ship of Fooles (JAMIESON, 1874), ii. 251. One myshap fortuneth never alone.]
1595–1609. S. DANIEL, The Civile Wars between the Two Houses of Lancaster and Yorke, iv. 24. Those faire bayts these TROUBLE-STATES still vse.
1614. I Would and Would not, s.v. [TROUBLE-TOWN].
d. 1618. SYLVESTER, The Furies, 328. Foul, TROUBLE-REST, fantastik, greedy-gut.
1635. QUARLES, Emblems, v. 14. Soul-boiling rage and TROUBLE-STATE sedition.
1653. URQUHART, Rabelais, I. xi. He had already begun to exercise the tools … and some of the women would give these names, my Roger … my smell-smock, TROUBLE-GUSSET, etc. Ibid., I. lii. Ill-bred louts, simple sots, or peevish TROUBLE-HOUSES.
1821. SCOTT, Kenilworth, xxxvii. But once more to this same TROUBLE-MIRTH, this Lady Varney.
