borrow trouble

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

To create or look for problems that do not exist yet

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

tạo ra hoặc tìm kiếm vấn đề không tồn tại

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: to take someone else's problems as one's own
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

She's borrowing trouble by worrying about things that might never happen

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “borrow trouble” mean?

To create or look for problems that do not exist yet Literally: to take someone else's problems as one's own

Is “borrow trouble” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

👁 Views 0 today 0 past 7 days 0 this month 0 all time