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bounce

verb, noun — 40 senses

bounce

verb

/baʊns/ · Northumbria /buːns/

Etymology From Middle English bounsen, bunsen (“to beat, thump”), cognate with Scots bunce, bonce (“to bounce”). Of uncertain origin. Perhaps imitative, 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”).

22 senses
  1. 1To change the direction of motion after hitting an obstacle.
  2. 2To move quickly up and then down (or vice versa), once…
  3. 3To cause to move quickly up and down, or back and forth…
  4. 4To suggest or introduce (an idea, etc.) to (off or by)…
  5. 5To leap or spring suddenly or unceremoniously; to bound.
  6. 6To move rapidly (between).
  7. 7To be refused by a bank because it is drawn on…
  8. 8To fail to cover (have sufficient funds for) (a…
  9. 9To leave.
  10. 10To eject violently, as from a room; to discharge…
  11. 11To have sexual intercourse.
  12. 12To attack unexpectedly.
  13. 13To turn power to (a device) off and back on; to reset; to reboot.
  14. 14To return undelivered.
  15. 15To land hard and lift off again due to excess momentum.
  16. 16To land hard at unsurvivable velocity with fatal results.
  17. 17To mix (two or more tracks of a multi-track audio…
  18. 18To render two or more tracks to computer storage so that…
  19. 19To bully; to scold.
  20. 20To boast; to bluster.
  21. 21To strike or thump, so as to make a sudden noise upon…
  22. 22To race poorly after a successful race.
1

To change the direction of motion after hitting an obstacle.

  • The tennis ball bounced off the wall before coming to rest in the ditch.
2

To move quickly up and then down (or vice versa), once or repeatedly.

  • He bounces nervously on his chair.
  • 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.2012 May 13, Alistair Magowan, “Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport:
3

To cause to move quickly up and down, or back and forth, once or repeatedly.

  • He bounced the child on his knee.
  • The children were bouncing a ball against a wall.
4

Colloquial 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.
5

To leap or spring suddenly or unceremoniously; to bound.

  • She bounced happily into the room.
  • Out bounced the mastiff.1731, On Mr. Pulteney's Being Put Out of the Council, Jonathan Swift:
6

To move rapidly (between).

  • “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.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:
7

Informal, 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.
8

Informal 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.
9

Slang To leave.

  • Let’s wrap this up, I gotta bounce.
  • 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.2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 64:
1 more example
  • 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.2023, Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia, directed by Raine Allen-Miller, Rye Lane, spoken by Nathan (Simon Manyonda):
10

US, Dated, Slang To eject violently, as from a room; to discharge unceremoniously, as from employment.

  • Nobody took umbrage and bounced me out of the Union for being a pro.1946, Yachting, volume 80, page 46:
  • Anyone who gets bounced out of [this bar] is not just pushed onto the street — he is walked home, or put in a cab.1977 December 17, Tom Hurley, “The Evolution of Sporters”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 24, page 12:
11

Slang, Sometimes, Followed by with To have sexual intercourse.

African-American Vernacular

12

To attack unexpectedly.

  • The squadron was bounced north of the town.
13

Business, Computing, Electrical engineering, Electricity, Electromagnetism, Electronics, Energy, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics, Sciences To turn power to (a device) off and back on; to reset; to reboot.

  • See if it helps to bounce the router.
14

Internet, Ergative, Of an e-mail message To return undelivered.

  • What’s your new email address? The old one bounces.
  • 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.
15

Aeronautics, Aerospace, Aviation, Business, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences To land hard and lift off again due to excess momentum.

  • The student pilot bounced several times during his landing.
16

Hobbies, Lifestyle, Skydiving, Sports To land hard at unsurvivable velocity with fatal results.

  • After the mid-air collision, his rig failed and he bounced.
17

Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music 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.

Sound recording

  • Bounce tracks two and three to track four, then record the cowbell on track two.
18

Engineering, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Technology To render two or more tracks to computer storage so that they can be played back and re-recorded with further material added.

  • bouncing stems
19

Archaic, Slang To bully; to scold.

  • Would I had him here again, I would so bounce him, I would so thank his lordship for his lewd plot.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):
20

Archaic, Slang To boast; to bluster.

21

Archaic To strike or thump, so as to make a sudden noise upon rebound; to knock loudly.

  • Another bounces as hard as he can knock.1708, Squire Bickerstaff Detected, John Partridge:
22

Hobbies, Horse racing, Horseracing, Horses, Lifestyle, Pets, Racing, Sports Slang To race poorly after a successful race.

Derived terms
bounceable, bounce around, bounceback, bounce back, bounced cheque, bouncedown, bounce in, bounce into, bounce off, bounce off the walls, bounce on it, bouncer, bounce rubble, bounce the rubble, bounce to the ounce, bouncing, bouncing Bet, bouncing castle, debounce, jounce, pec bounce, rebounce

bounce

noun

Etymology From Middle English bounsen, bunsen (“to beat, thump”), cognate with Scots bunce, bonce (“to bounce”). Of uncertain origin. Perhaps imitative, 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”).

18 senses
  1. 1A change of direction of motion after hitting the ground…
  2. 2A movement up and then down (or vice versa), once or repeatedly.
  3. 3An email that returns to the sender because of a…
  4. 4A hypothetical event where a collapsing system, such as…
  5. 5The sack, dismissal.
  6. 6A bang, boom.
  7. 7A drink based on brandy, cherry bounce.
  8. 8A heavy, sudden, and often noisy, blow or thump.
  9. 9Bluster; brag; untruthful boasting; audacious…
  10. 10Scyliorhinus canicula, a European dogfish.
  11. 11A genre of hip-hop music of New Orleans, characterized…
  12. 12Drugs.
  13. 13Swagger.
  14. 14A good beat in music.
  15. 15A talent for leaping.
  16. 16An increase in popularity.
  17. 17An obstacle for a horse to jump over, consisting of two…
  18. 18The situation where a horse races poorly after a successful race.
1

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

  • 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.2012 June 9, Owen Phillips, “Euro 2012: Netherlands 0-1 Denmark”, in BBC Sport:
2

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

3

Internet An email that returns to the sender because of a delivery failure.

4

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.

Quantum mechanics

5

Slang The sack, dismissal.

  • Someone more clever than I said, "It's not the bounce that counts, it's the bounce back. "2007, Annabelle Gurwitch, Fired!: Tales of the Canned, Canceled, Downsized, and Dismissed, page 243:
  • Customers said I was a hoot; management gave me the bounce.2014, Lisa See, China Dolls:
1 more example
  • 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.2018, Harry Stephen Keeler, The Portrait of Jirjohn Cobb, page 241:
6

Archaic A bang, boom.

  • I don't value her resentment the bounce of a cracker.1773, Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer:
7

Archaic A drink based on brandy, cherry bounce.

  • A prologue of cherry bounce,—brandy,—preceded the entertainment, which was enlivened by hob-nobs and joyous toasts.1870 May, “Irish Life”, in The Saint Pauls Magazine, volume VI, London: Strahan & Co., publishers, 56, Ludgate Hill, →OCLC, page 203:
  • 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.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
8

Archaic A heavy, sudden, and often noisy, blow or thump.

  • The bounce burst ope the door.1685, John Dryden, The Despairing Lover:
9

Archaic Bluster; brag; untruthful boasting; audacious exaggeration; an impudent lie; a bouncer.

  • 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 matter1827, Thomas De Quincey, On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts:
10

Scyliorhinus canicula, a European dogfish.

11

A genre of hip-hop music of New Orleans, characterized by often lewd call-and-response chants.

12

Slang Drugs.

African-American Vernacular

13

Slang Swagger.

African-American Vernacular

14

Slang A good beat in music.

African-American Vernacular

15

Slang A talent for leaping.

African-American Vernacular

  • Them pro-ballers got bounce!
16

Government, Politics Informal 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.

18

Hobbies, Horse racing, Horseracing, Horses, Lifestyle, Pets, Racing, Sports Slang The situation where a horse races poorly after a successful race.

Derived terms
air bounce, antibounce, Boris bounce, bounce house, bounceless, bounce rate, bouncy, Brown bounce, dead-cat bounce, dead cat bounce, eye bounce, keybounce, key bounce, moonbounce, moon bounce, multibounce, on the bounce, postbounce, superbounce

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.

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