feed the troll

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

to respond to or encourage someone who is posting inflammatory content

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

trả lời hoặc khuyến khích người đăng nội dung gây kích động

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: give food to a mythical creature
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

Don't feed the troll, just ignore him

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 “feed the troll” mean?

to respond to or encourage someone who is posting inflammatory content Literally: give food to a mythical creature

Is “feed the troll” formal or informal?

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