troop

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 *thorp (“assembly, gathering”), from Proto-Germanic *þurpą (“village, land, estate”), from Proto-Indo-European *treb- (“dwelling, settlement”). Akin to Old English þorp, þrop (“village, farm, estate”) (Modern English thorp), Old Frisian thorp, Old Norse þorp. More at thorp.

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

troop (plural troops)

1. (collective) A collection of people; a number; a multitude (in general).
   • Shakespeare

     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. Soldiers, military forces (usually "troops").
   • Shakespeare

     Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars.

   • Macaulay

     His troops moved to victory with the precision of machines.

5. (nonstandard) A company of stageplayers; a troupe.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of W. Coxe to this entry?)

6. (Scouting) A basic unit of girl or boy scouts, consisting of 6 to 10 youngsters.
7. (collective) A group of baboons.
8. A particular roll of the drum; a quick march.
9. (mycology) Mushrooms that are in a close group but not close enough to be called a cluster.

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

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. B. Maxwell, chapter 5, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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.

• troop the colour (British, military)

• Appendix:English collective nouns

• “troop” in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2004.
• “troop” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.

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

• Audio

  (file)

troop f (plural tropen, diminutive troopje n)

1. (music, literature, linguistics) trope