bounce

present singular third person bounces · participle present bouncing · participle past bounced · past bounced

1. intransitiveTo change the direction of motion after hitting an obstacle.

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

   Synonyms: bounce back, rebound

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

   He bounces nervously on his chair.

   1 more example

   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

   Synonyms: bob

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

   He bounced the child on his knee.

   1 more example

   The children were bouncing a ball against a wall.

4. colloquialtransitiveTo 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. intransitiveTo leap or spring suddenly or unceremoniously; to bound.

   She bounced happily into the room.

   1 more example

   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. informalintransitiveTo 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. informaltransitiveTo 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. intransitiveslangTo leave.

   Let’s wrap this up, I gotta bounce.

   2 more examples

   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

   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. USdatedslangtransitiveTo 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

    1 more example

    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

    1. USdatedintransitiveslangtransitiveTo work as a bouncer.

       I met him back when he bounced at the bar where I worked.

11. intransitiveslangsometimesAfrican-American VernacularTo have sexual intercourse.

    Synonyms: bang, do it, have sex, approach, cohabit, common, company, copulate

12. transitiveair combatTo attack unexpectedly.

    The squadron was bounced north of the town.

13. transitivebusinessTo turn power to (a device) off and back on; to reset; to reboot.

    See if it helps to bounce the router.

14. InternetergativeTo return undelivered.

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

    1 more example

    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. intransitiveaeronauticsTo land hard and lift off again due to excess momentum.

    The student pilot bounced several times during his landing.

16. intransitivehobbiesTo land hard at unsurvivable velocity with fatal results.

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

17. transitivesound recordingentertainmentTo 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.

18. engineeringTo 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. archaicslangTo 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. archaicslangTo boast; to bluster.
21. archaicTo 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. slanghobbiesTo race poorly after a successful race.
23. slangTo travel to a less busy section of a railway line, against one's intended direction of travel, usually for the purpose of obtaining a seat.

plural bounces

1. countableuncountableA 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

   Synonyms: rebound

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

   Synonyms: bob, bobbing, bouncing

3. InternetcountableuncountableAn email that returns to the sender because of a delivery failure.
4. countableuncountablequantum mechanicsA 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. countableslanguncountableThe sack, dismissal.

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

   2014, Lisa See, China Dolls

   3 more examples

   Or how about, "Turn in your rubber/A pound or an ounce/It will all help our soldiers/Give Hitler the bounce."

   1942 June 16, “A Mouse in the House”, in Fibber McGee and Molly, spoken by Molly McGee

   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

   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. archaiccountableuncountableA bang, boom.

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

   1773, Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer

7. archaiccountableuncountableA 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

   1 more example

   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. archaiccountableuncountableA heavy, sudden, and often noisy, blow or thump.

   The bounce burst ope the door.

   1685, John Dryden, The Despairing Lover

9. archaiccountableuncountableBluster; 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 matter

   1827, Thomas De Quincey, On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts

10. countableuncountableScyliorhinus canicula, a European dogfish.

    Synonyms: houndfish, morgay, small-spotted catshark

11. uncountableA genre of hip-hop music of New Orleans, characterized by often lewd call-and-response chants.
12. slanguncountableAfrican-American VernacularDrugs.

    Synonyms: recreational drug, drug, dope, gear, horse, stuff, substance

13. slanguncountableAfrican-American VernacularSwagger.
14. slanguncountableAfrican-American VernacularA good beat in music.
15. slanguncountableAfrican-American VernacularA talent for leaping.

    Them pro-ballers got bounce!

    Synonyms: ups, mad ups

16. countableinformaluncountablegovernmentAn increase in popularity.
17. countableuncountableAn 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.

    Synonyms: no-stride

18. countableslanguncountablehobbiesThe situation where a horse races poorly after a successful race.