What (who) is trolling - definition
![''Aggravation'' by [[Briton Rivière]] (1896). Radford suggests that many trolls perceive themselves as [[jester]]-like figures, tormenting their targets from a position of relative safety.<ref name="Bad Clowns"/>](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Aerger.jpg?width=200 "''Aggravation'' by [[Briton Rivière]] (1896). Radford suggests that many trolls perceive themselves as [[jester]]-like figures, tormenting their targets from a position of relative safety.<ref name=\"Bad Clowns\"/>")
![ignore]] rather than engage with a troll is sometimes phrased as "Please don't feed the trolls."](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/DoNotFeedTroll.svg?width=200 "ignore]] rather than engage with a troll is sometimes phrased as \"Please don't feed the trolls.\"")
Little Joe was trolling the food table at the party. ORWe don't have dates for the party, but we'll be trollin' once we got there.
Wikipedia
In slang, a troll is a person who posts or makes inflammatory, insincere, digressive, extraneous, or off-topic messages online (such as in social media, a newsgroup, a forum, a chat room, an online video game), or in real life, with the intent of provoking others into displaying emotional responses, or manipulating others' perception, thus acting as a bully or a provocateur. The behavior is typically for the troll's amusement, or to achieve a specific result such as disrupting a rival's online activities or purposefully causing confusion or harm to other people.
In this context, both the noun and the verb forms of "troll" are frequently associated with Internet discourse. Media attention in recent years has equated trolling with online harassment. The Courier-Mail and The Today Show have used "troll" to mean "a person who defaces Internet tribute sites with the aim of causing grief to families". In addition, depictions of trolling have been included in popular fictional works, such as the HBO television program The Newsroom, in which a main character encounters harassing persons online and tries to infiltrate their circles by posting negative sexual comments.
