1. A condition of distress, affliction, difficulty, or need: The parents tried to console their children in their troubles.
2. A distressing or difficult circumstance or situation: Mary has had many troubles ever since she took the job.
3. A cause or source of distress, disturbance, or difficulty: The new students were a trouble to Mrs. Tall, the teacher.
4. A condition of pain, disease, or malfunction: Mary's father had both heart trouble and car trouble.
5. Public unrest or disorder; a disturbance: The newspapers were full of articles about the troubles in Northern Ireland.
6. Something that is extremely difficult or which presents a problem: The trouble with the leaking roof was found b the worker.

Origin of the word, trouble

When a person is in trouble, his or her mind is ill at ease. The Latin parent of the word trouble indicates the same thing because "turbo" meant "disturb".

It came into Englsh first with the spelling "turble", then "truble", and finally trouble. This same Latin word, "turbo", has given us "turbulent", full of commotion; "disturb", throw into complete disorder, and "turbid", or in other words, a "turbid" stream which is all muddied up.