a small body of horse or dragoons, about fifty or sixty, sometimes more, sometimes less; commanded by a captain. Each troop, besides a captain, has a lieutenant, cornet, quarter-master, and three corporals, who are the lowest officers of a troop.

TROPÆOLUM, in botany, a genus of the octandria monogynia clas. The calix consists of one calcarated leaf; and the corolla of five unequal petals; and there are three dry berries. The species are three, all natives of Peru.

TRÔPE, in rhetoric, a kind of figure of speech, whereby a word is removed from its first and natural signification, and applied with advantage to another thing, which it does not originally mean; but only stands for it, as it has a relation to or connection with it: as in this sentence, God is my rock. Here the trope lies in the word rock, which being firm and immoveable, excites in our minds the notion of God's unfailing power, and the steady support which good men receive from their dependence upon him.