trouper
/ˈtruːpə
/noun
1An actor or other entertainer, typically one with long experience: an old trouper out for one last look at his adoring public...
- The Thai performers are experienced troupers who know how to lip-sync to Chinese songs and they would go downstage to mingle with the audience, such as sitting down on the laps of the male audience members.
- Like an old trouper who cannot resist the limelight, he flounced out of a special parade of champions, saying he could not support sport as long as there were drug cover-ups going on.
- In this photograph, Kerry bears an odd resemblance to an ageing Beach Boy, another old trouper who promises good vibrations.
1.1A reliable and uncomplaining person: a real trouper, Ma concealed her troubles...
- Denise, who is playing the wicked queen, said: ‘I take my crown off to her she is a real trouper.’
- Bridget says that her son is a real trouper, but his success, she hopes, will reassure any parent whose child is diagnosed as a diabetic.
- I'd recommend it to novice gardeners because it is a real trouper of a plant.
The traditional spelling for the sense ‘a reliable and uncomplaining person’ is trouper, not trooper. More than two thirds of examples of this use in the Oxford English Corpus are spelled trooper, however, and this form has become common even in edited text. Nonetheless, trooper is still regarded by many as incorrect
Origin
1920s: from troupe + -er1.