"don't feed the troll" meaning in English

See don't feed the troll in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-don't feed the troll.wav [US] Forms: don't feed the trolls [alternative]
Head templates: {{en-head|phr|head=~feed the troll}} don't feed the troll
  1. (Internet slang) Said to urge another not to respond to disruptive behavior, particularly in online contexts, by pointing out any such response is likely to be counterproductive. Tags: Internet Synonyms: DFTT, DNFTT Translations (don't feed the troll): Füttere nicht die Trolle [feminine, plural] (German), nie karm trolla (Polish), не корми тролля (ne kormi trollya) (Russian), mata inte trollet (Swedish)

Alternative forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "don't feed the trolls",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "phr",
        "head": "~feed the troll"
      },
      "expansion": "don't feed the troll",
      "name": "en-head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English imperative sentences",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
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          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
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        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Russian terms with non-redundant manual transliterations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
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        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Russian translations",
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Swedish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Said to urge another not to respond to disruptive behavior, particularly in online contexts, by pointing out any such response is likely to be counterproductive."
      ],
      "id": "en-don't_feed_the_troll-en-phrase--9Q5jdTS",
      "links": [
        [
          "Internet",
          "Internet"
        ],
        [
          "Said",
          "said#English"
        ],
        [
          "urge",
          "urge#English"
        ],
        [
          "respond",
          "respond#English"
        ],
        [
          "disruptive",
          "disruptive#English"
        ],
        [
          "behavior",
          "behavior#English"
        ],
        [
          "online",
          "online#English"
        ],
        [
          "contexts",
          "contexts#English"
        ],
        [
          "pointing out",
          "pointing out#English"
        ],
        [
          "response",
          "response#English"
        ],
        [
          "counterproductive",
          "counterproductive#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Internet slang) Said to urge another not to respond to disruptive behavior, particularly in online contexts, by pointing out any such response is likely to be counterproductive."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "DFTT"
        },
        {
          "word": "DNFTT"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Internet"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "don't feed the troll",
          "tags": [
            "feminine",
            "plural"
          ],
          "word": "Füttere nicht die Trolle"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "lang_code": "pl",
          "sense": "don't feed the troll",
          "word": "nie karm trolla"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "lang_code": "ru",
          "roman": "ne kormi trollya",
          "sense": "don't feed the troll",
          "word": "не корми тролля"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "lang_code": "sv",
          "sense": "don't feed the troll",
          "word": "mata inte trollet"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "don't feed the troll"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "don't feed the trolls",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "phr",
        "head": "~feed the troll"
      },
      "expansion": "don't feed the troll",
      "name": "en-head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English imperative sentences",
        "English internet slang",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrases",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Russian terms with non-redundant manual transliterations",
        "Terms with German translations",
        "Terms with Polish translations",
        "Terms with Russian translations",
        "Terms with Swedish translations"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Said to urge another not to respond to disruptive behavior, particularly in online contexts, by pointing out any such response is likely to be counterproductive."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Internet",
          "Internet"
        ],
        [
          "Said",
          "said#English"
        ],
        [
          "urge",
          "urge#English"
        ],
        [
          "respond",
          "respond#English"
        ],
        [
          "disruptive",
          "disruptive#English"
        ],
        [
          "behavior",
          "behavior#English"
        ],
        [
          "online",
          "online#English"
        ],
        [
          "contexts",
          "contexts#English"
        ],
        [
          "pointing out",
          "pointing out#English"
        ],
        [
          "response",
          "response#English"
        ],
        [
          "counterproductive",
          "counterproductive#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Internet slang) Said to urge another not to respond to disruptive behavior, particularly in online contexts, by pointing out any such response is likely to be counterproductive."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "DFTT"
        },
        {
          "word": "DNFTT"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Internet"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "don't feed the troll",
      "tags": [
        "feminine",
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "Füttere nicht die Trolle"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "lang_code": "pl",
      "sense": "don't feed the troll",
      "word": "nie karm trolla"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "lang_code": "ru",
      "roman": "ne kormi trollya",
      "sense": "don't feed the troll",
      "word": "не корми тролля"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "lang_code": "sv",
      "sense": "don't feed the troll",
      "word": "mata inte trollet"
    }
  ],
  "word": "don't feed the troll"
}

Download raw JSONL data for don't feed the troll meaning in English (2.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.