Etymology

From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#BOUNCECategory:English terms derived from Middle English#BOUNCE bounsen, bunsen (“to beat, thump”), cognate with Scots bunce, bonce (“to bounce”). Of uncertainCategory:English terms with unknown etymologies#BOUNCE origin. Perhaps imitativeCategory:English onomatopoeias#BOUNCE, related to bump, or related to Middle English bonchen (“to pound, beat”) and Dutch bonken (“to bump”).

Compare Saterland Frisian bumzje (“to pound, bang, bounce”), West Frisian bûnzje (“to throb, bounce, pulsate”), Dutch bonzen (“to thump, knock, throb, bounce”), German Low German bunsen, bumsen (“to beat, bounce”), German bumsen (“to thud, bang, pound”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: bouns, IPA^(key): /baʊns/Category:English 1-syllable words#BOUNCECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BOUNCE
• (Northumbria) IPA^(key): /buːns/Category:English 1-syllable words#BOUNCECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BOUNCE

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#BOUNCE
• Rhymes: -aʊnsCategory:Rhymes:English/aʊns#BOUNCECategory:Rhymes:English/aʊns/1 syllable#BOUNCE

Verb

bounce (third-person singular simple present bounces, present participle bouncing, simple past and past participle bounced)Category:English lemmas#BOUNCECategory:English verbs#BOUNCECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#BOUNCECategory:Pages with entries#BOUNCECategory:Pages with 1 entry#BOUNCE

1. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#BOUNCE) To change the direction of motion after hitting an obstacle.

   Synonyms: bounce back, rebound

   The tennis ball bounced off the wall before coming to rest in the ditch.Category:English terms with usage examples#BOUNCE

2. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#BOUNCE) To move quickly up and then down (or vice versa), once or repeatedly.

   Synonym: bob

   He bounces nervously on his chair.Category:English terms with usage examples#BOUNCE

   • 2012 May 13, Alistair Magowan, “Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport‎:

     The Black Cats contributed to their own downfall for the only goal when Titus Bramble, making his first appearance since Boxing Day, and Michael Turner, let Phil Jones' cross bounce across the six-yard box as Rooney tucked in at the back post.

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3. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#BOUNCE) To cause to move quickly up and down, or back and forth, once or repeatedly.

   He bounced the child on his knee.Category:English terms with usage examples#BOUNCE

   The children were bouncing a ball against a wall.Category:English terms with usage examples#BOUNCE

4. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#BOUNCE, colloquialCategory:English colloquialisms#BOUNCE) To suggest or introduce (an idea, etc.) to (off or by) someone, in order to gain feedback.

   I'm meeting Bob later to bounce some ideas off him about the new product range.Category:English terms with usage examples#BOUNCE

5. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#BOUNCE) To leap or spring suddenly or unceremoniously; to bound.

   She bounced happily into the room.Category:English terms with usage examples#BOUNCE

   • 1731, On Mr. Pulteney's Being Put Out of the Council, Jonathan Swift:

     Out bounced the mastiff.

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6. To move rapidly (between).
   • 2017 July 30, Ali Barthwell, “Ice and fire finally meet in a front-loaded episode of Game Of Thrones (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club‎:

     “The Queen’s Justice” had some fantastic moments of wit and heart but the structure and pacing didn’t do it any favors. The first section of the episode mostly bounced between Jon Snow’s arrival at Dragonstone and Cersei Lannister burning through her enemies and giving nary a fuck.

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7. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#BOUNCE, informalCategory:English informal terms#BOUNCE, of a cheque/check) To be refused by a bank because it is drawn on insufficient funds.

   We can’t accept further checks from you, as your last one bounced.Category:English terms with usage examples#BOUNCE

8. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#BOUNCE, informalCategory:English informal terms#BOUNCE) To fail to cover (have sufficient funds for) (a cheque/check drawn on one's account).

   He tends to bounce a check or two toward the end of each month, before his payday.Category:English terms with usage examples#BOUNCE

9. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#BOUNCE, slangCategory:English slang#BOUNCE) To leave.

   Let’s wrap this up, I gotta bounce.Category:English terms with usage examples#BOUNCE

   • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 64:

     I was definitely looking forward to getting me some more of Yasmere in the future, so I took a quick second to give her a last little bit of love before I bounced.

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   • 2023, Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia, directed by Raine Allen-Miller, Rye Lane, spoken by Nathan (Simon Manyonda):

     All right, look, don't prang out. They had this paint-party-brunch thing. But I only stayed for 45 minutes, painted a tiny bit of a door, ate half an almond croissant and bounced.

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10. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#BOUNCE, USCategory:American English#BOUNCE, slangCategory:English slang#BOUNCE, datedCategory:English dated terms#BOUNCE) To eject violently, as from a room; to discharge unceremoniously, as from employment.
    • 1946, Yachting, volume 80, page 46:

      Nobody took umbrage and bounced me out of the Union for being a pro.

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    • 1977 December 17, Tom Hurley, “The Evolution of Sporters”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 24, page 12:

      Anyone who gets bounced out of [this bar] is not just pushed onto the street — he is walked home, or put in a cab.

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11. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#BOUNCE, slangCategory:English slang#BOUNCE, African-American VernacularCategory:African-American Vernacular English#BOUNCE, sometimes followed by with) To have sexual intercourse.

    Synonyms: bang, do it, have sex; see also Thesaurus:copulate

12. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#BOUNCE, air combat) To attack unexpectedly.

    The squadron was bounced north of the town.Category:English terms with usage examples#BOUNCE

13. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#BOUNCE, electronicsCategory:en:Electronics#BOUNCE, computingCategory:en:Computing#BOUNCE) To turn power to (a device) off and back on; to reset; to reboot.

    See if it helps to bounce the router.Category:English terms with usage examples#BOUNCE

14. (ergativeCategory:English ergative verbs#BOUNCE, InternetCategory:en:Internet#BOUNCE, of an e-mail message) To return undelivered.

    What’s your new email address? The old one bounces.Category:English terms with usage examples#BOUNCE

    The girl in the bar told me her address was thirsty@example.com, but my mail to that address was bounced back by the server.Category:English terms with usage examples#BOUNCE

15. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#BOUNCE, aviationCategory:en:Aviation#BOUNCE) To land hard and lift off again due to excess momentum.

    The student pilot bounced several times during his landing.Category:English terms with usage examples#BOUNCE

16. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#BOUNCE, skydivingCategory:en:Skydiving#BOUNCE) To land hard at unsurvivable velocity with fatal results.

    After the mid-air collision, his rig failed and he bounced.Category:English terms with usage examples#BOUNCE

17. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#BOUNCE, musicCategory:en:Music#BOUNCE, sound recording) To mix (two or more tracks of a multi-track audio recording) and record the result onto a single track, in order to free up tracks for further material to be added.

    Bounce tracks two and three to track four, then record the cowbell on track two.Category:English terms with usage examples#BOUNCE

18. (musicCategory:en:Music#BOUNCE, technologyCategory:en:Technology#BOUNCE) To render two or more tracks to computer storage so that they can be played back and re-recorded with further material added.

    bouncing stemsCategory:English terms with collocations#BOUNCE

19. (slangCategory:English slang#BOUNCE, archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#BOUNCE) To bully; to scold.
    • 1621 (first performance), John Fletcher, “The Wild-Goose Chase; a Comedy”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

      Would I had him here again, I would so bounce him, I would so thank his lordship for his lewd plot.

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20. (slangCategory:English slang#BOUNCE, archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#BOUNCE) To boast; to bluster.
21. (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#BOUNCE) To strike or thump, so as to make a sudden noise upon rebound; to knock loudly.
    • 1708, Squire Bickerstaff Detected, John Partridge:

      Another bounces as hard as he can knock.

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22. (horse racingCategory:en:Horse racing#BOUNCE, slangCategory:English slang#BOUNCE) To race poorly after a successful race.

Noun

bounce (countable and uncountable, plural bounces)Category:English lemmas#BOUNCECategory:English nouns#BOUNCECategory:English uncountable nouns#BOUNCECategory:English countable nouns#BOUNCECategory:English countable nouns#BOUNCECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#BOUNCECategory:Pages with entries#BOUNCECategory:Pages with 1 entry#BOUNCE

1. A change of direction of motion after hitting the ground or an obstacle.

   Synonym: rebound

   • 2012 June 9, Owen Phillips, “Euro 2012: Netherlands 0-1 Denmark”, in BBC Sport:

     Krohn-Dehli took advantage of a lucky bounce of the ball after a battling run on the left flank by Simon Poulsen, dummied two defenders and shot low through goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg's legs after 24 minutes.

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2. A movement up and then down (or vice versa), once or repeatedly.

   Synonyms: bob, (repeated) bobbing, (repeated) bouncing

3. (InternetCategory:en:Internet#BOUNCE) An email that returns to the sender because of a delivery failure.
4. (quantum mechanicsCategory:en:Quantum mechanics#BOUNCE) A hypothetical event where a collapsing system, such as a universe in the Big Bounce theory, reaches a point of extreme density and then rebounds back into an expanding phase, essentially reversing the contraction due to quantum mechanical effects.
5. (slangCategory:English slang#BOUNCE) The sack, dismissal.
   • 2007, Annabelle Gurwitch, Fired!: Tales of the Canned, Canceled, Downsized, and Dismissed, page 243:

     Someone more clever than I said, "It's not the bounce that counts, it's the bounce back. "

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   • 2014, Lisa See, China Dolls:

     Customers said I was a hoot; management gave me the bounce.

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   • 2018, Harry Stephen Keeler, The Portrait of Jirjohn Cobb, page 241:

     I was no longer with the Oakhaven Hospital when I decided to come out here to the island; they'd fired me when they traced a long-distance call I'd made to San Francisco, under the director's name, to a man the papers had said got pinched out there, under suspicion of having lifted a poke with 10 grand in it—but later released—a man named Andy Glover. I thought sure he was a certain lug who'd been in stir with me, and thought to make a touch—however, skip it!—the point is that it was the wrong Andy Glover!—the call got traced to the phone in the hospital urinal room—and I got the bounce.

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6. (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#BOUNCE) A bang, boom.
   • 1773, Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer:

     I don't value her resentment the bounce of a cracker.

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7. (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#BOUNCE) A drink based on brandy.^W
   • 1870 May, “Irish Life”, in The Saint Pauls Magazine, volume VI, London: Strahan & Co., publishers, 56, Ludgate Hill, →OCLC, page 203:

     A prologue of cherry bounce,—brandy,—preceded the entertainment, which was enlivened by hob-nobs and joyous toasts.

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   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     He had one hand on the bounce bottle—and he'd never let go of that since he got back to the table—but he had a handkerchief in the other and was swabbing his deadlights with it.

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8. (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#BOUNCE) A heavy, sudden, and often noisy, blow or thump.
   • 1685, John Dryden, The Despairing Lover:

     The bounce burst ope the door.

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9. (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#BOUNCE) Bluster; brag; untruthful boasting; audacious exaggeration; an impudent lie; a bouncer.
   • 1827, Thomas De Quincey, On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts:

     And, in fact, the whole story is a bounce of his own. For, in a most abusive letter which he wrote “to a learned person,” (meaning Wallis the mathematician,) he gives quite another account of the matter

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10. Scyliorhinus canicula, a European dogfish.

    Synonyms: houndfish, morgay, small-spotted catshark

11. (uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#BOUNCE) A genre of hip-hop music of New Orleans, characterized by often lewd call-and-response chants.
12. (slangCategory:English slang#BOUNCE, African-American VernacularCategory:African-American Vernacular English#BOUNCE, uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#BOUNCE) Drugs.

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:recreational drug

13. (slangCategory:English slang#BOUNCE, African-American VernacularCategory:African-American Vernacular English#BOUNCE, uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#BOUNCE) Swagger.
14. (slangCategory:English slang#BOUNCE, African-American VernacularCategory:African-American Vernacular English#BOUNCE, uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#BOUNCE) A good beat in music.
15. (slangCategory:English slang#BOUNCE, African-American VernacularCategory:African-American Vernacular English#BOUNCE, uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#BOUNCE) A talent for leaping.

    Synonyms: ups, mad ups

    Them pro-ballers got bounce!Category:English terms with usage examples#BOUNCE

16. (politicsCategory:en:Politics#BOUNCE, informalCategory:English informal terms#BOUNCE) An increase in popularity.
17. An obstacle for a horse to jump over, consisting of two fences close together so that the horse cannot take a full stride between them, nor jump both at once.

    Synonym: no-stride

18. (horse racingCategory:en:Horse racing#BOUNCE, slangCategory:English slang#BOUNCE) The situation where a horse races poorly after a successful race.