trampoline

What it means

1. countableuncountableA gymnastic and recreational device consisting of a piece of taut, strong fabric or rubber stretched over a (usually steel) frame using many coiled springs as anchors.

   Though the name of the Four Cleos may not be familiar, their pranks are. They perform on that apparatus resembling a spring mattress, which has been dubbed the “trampoline,” owing to some confusion with the Anglicised form of tremplin (springboard).

   [1930 June 1, “Coliseum. The Four Cleos.”, in The Observer, number 7,253, London, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 21, column 4

   1 more example

   No man was ever known to poſſeſs ſuch wonderful activity as Mr. Ireland, the flying Phœnomenon, at the Royal Circus; he poſitively leaps over a large tilted waggon and four horſes, and performs a number of other feats equally aſtoniſhing; he is a young man of about 23 years of age, 6 feet and an inch high, and does not make uſe of a ſpring board or trampoline.

   [1799 June 1, The Times, number 4498, London, →ISSN, →OCLC, page [3], column 4

   Synonyms: rebound tumbler

2. uncountableA competitive sport in which athletes are judged on routines of tricks performed on a trampoline.

   Synonyms: rebound tumbling, trampolining

3. countableuncountablecomputingAny of a variety of looping or jumping instructions in specific programming languages.

In a sentence

No man was ever known to poſſeſs ſuch wonderful activity as Mr. Ireland, the flying Phœnomenon, at the Royal Circus; he poſitively leaps over a large tilted waggon and four horſes, and performs a number of other feats equally aſtoniſhing; he is a young man of about 23 years of age, 6 feet and an inch high, and does not make uſe of a ſpring board or trampoline.

[1799 June 1, The Times, number 4498, London, →ISSN, →OCLC, page [3], column 4

Where it comes from

1. Middle High Germantrampeln
2. Germantrampeln
3. Italiantrampolo
4. Italiantrampolino
5. Spanishtrampolín
6. Italiantrampolino
7. Englishtrampoline

From Spanish trampolín and/or Italian trampolino; in English, a genericized trademark based on the Spanish word trademarked in 1936, but attested since 1798.