bounce

BOWNS/baʊns/

Noun pluralbounces

40 meanings of bounce

1
verbintransitive
To move quickly up and then down, or the reverse, whether once or many times.
The diving board continued to bounce after she leapt off.
Loose change bounced in his pocket while he jogged.
Similarbob
2
verbintransitive
To change direction of motion after striking an obstacle or surface.
Sound waves bounce off hard surfaces and create echoes.
The arrow bounced harmlessly off the steel plate.
Similarrebound
Note
The everyday sense, though the word began elsewhere. Middle English bounsen meant "to beat, thump." Its origin is uncertain: perhaps imitative, perhaps related to bump. In the rebound sense it usually takes a preposition, so a ball bounces off a wall or back from a post. Rebound is its close synonym, and bounce back puts the stress on the return.
3
verbtransitive
To make something jump up and down or move to and fro quickly, either once or repeatedly.
Workers bounce the conveyor belt to shake loose stuck items.
The goalkeeper bounced the ball a few times before the kick.
Similarjiggle, shake
4
nouncountable or uncountable
An upward and then downward movement, or the reverse, occurring once or repeatedly.
The new mattress has surprising bounce.
The gymnast used the mat's bounce to add height to her flips.
Similarbob, bobbing, bouncing
5
nouncountable or uncountable
A change in the direction of motion after striking the ground or an obstacle.
The dry pitch gave the ball extra bounce that afternoon.
Defenders struggled with the unpredictable bounce on the worn field.
Similarrebound
6
verbintransitive
To leap or spring suddenly and without ceremony; to bound.
The children bounce down the stairs on Christmas morning.
He bounced to his feet the moment his name was called.
Similarbound, spring, leap, jump, skip
Note
Here the energy belongs to the mover, not to a surface struck. Swift's On Mr. Pulteney's Being Put Out of the Council (1731) has "Out bounced the mastiff," and the inverted order still suits the sense's habit of bursting into a scene. It sits close to bound, but bounce adds suddenness and a lack of ceremony.
7
verbcolloquialtransitive
To suggest or introduce an idea to someone in order to gain their feedback.
Let me bounce this proposal off you before I commit to it.
She bounced several concepts off the design team.
Similarfloat, pitch, run, try
Note
A colloquial figure from working talk. You send an idea toward a colleague the way a ball meets a wall, and what comes back is their reaction. Off is the usual partner, as in bouncing ideas off someone, and by is also used, as in bouncing a plan by a manager. The idea is always the object, never the listener.
8
verbcolloquialintransitive
Of a check, to be refused by a bank because it is drawn on an account with insufficient funds.
Payments bounce whenever the balance falls below zero.
The check bounced, and the store added a penalty.
Similarfail
Oppositeclear
Note
Here the check itself is the subject, and the verb takes no object: the check bounced, your last one bounced. The person who wrote it drops out of the sentence. That is what separates this use from its causative partner, where the writer becomes the subject and takes the blame: he bounced a check. Both belong to informal speech rather than careful prose.
9
verbcolloquialtransitive
To write a check that one's account lacks the funds to cover.
Tenants who bounce checks risk losing their lease.
He bounced a check at the hardware store and had to pay a fee.
10
verbslangintransitive
To leave a place, especially abruptly or casually.
I'm going to bounce before traffic gets bad.
She bounced right after the speeches ended.
Similarleave, split, bail, go (entry)
Oppositestay
Note
Slang for leaving, usually announced in the first person: I gotta bounce. It takes no object, so you bounce, but you do not bounce a party. It suits casual exits, as when a speaker in the film Rye Lane (2023) recalls staying forty-five minutes, eating half an almond croissant and bouncing. In formal writing, leave or go does the job.

11
verbtransitive or intransitive
Of an email or message, to return to the sender because it could not be delivered.
Messages bounce when the recipient's mailbox is over its limit.
The newsletter bounced from dozens of closed accounts.
Similarreturn, fail
Note
The verb works both ways round. An address or message can bounce on its own, or a server can bounce it back to the sender. Either way, the mail is what moves. The returned message has its own name, the bounced email itself, which can be counted as a bounce or used as a mass noun.
12
nouncountable or uncountable
Email that returns to the sender as a result of a delivery failure.
The campaign produced heavy bounce from outdated mailing lists.
Administrators monitor bounce to keep the sender reputation high.
13
nouncolloquialcountable or uncountable
An increase in someone's or something's popularity.
The candidate saw a clear bounce after the televised town hall.
The product launch gave the brand a real bounce.
Similarboost, lift, bump, surge, rise
Oppositedip, slump, drop
Note
In political talk, support can rebound like a ball: a candidate gets a bounce, or enjoys one. It is informal and countable, so a bounce can be small or large. It is usually tied to whatever set the rise in motion.
14
verbtransitive
To turn a device's power off and then back on; to reset or reboot it.
Bounce the modem and see if the connection returns.
The admin bounced the printer to clear the error.
Similarreboot, restart, reset, cycle
Note
A technician's word for the simplest fix there is: power off, power on. The object is the device itself, as in bounce the router. The tone is casual shop talk, a quick verb where reboot or reset is the fuller term. It promises nothing more elaborate than one cycle of the switch.
15
verbintransitive
To move rapidly back and forth between things.
Her thoughts bounce between work and home all evening.
The negotiations bounced between the two parties for weeks.
Similaralternate, oscillate, swing, shuttle, seesaw
16
verbintransitive
To land hard and lift off the ground again because of excess momentum.
Coming in too steep, the jet bounced down the runway before the pilots regained control.
Pilots are trained to add power smoothly so the plane doesn't bounce on touchdown.
Note
Flight instructors count these: a student pilot can bounce several times in a single landing. The aircraft touches down too hard, springs back into the air and comes down again. The word marks a landing whose momentum was not absorbed. Pilot or plane can be the subject, and the verb takes no object.
17
verbtransitive
To mix two or more tracks of a multi-track recording and record the result onto a single track, freeing up tracks for more material.
The engineer bounced the rhythm section to a stereo pair to save space.
Before the session ended, they decided to bounce the backing harmonies down to one track.
Note
Studio language for consolidation: bounce tracks two and three to track four, then record something new on the freed tracks. The construction names the sources first and then the destination, introduced by to. Once bounced, the sources share a single track, so their balance is fixed in the mix that was recorded.
18
verbtransitive
In audio production, to save two or more tracks to a computer as a rendered file, so that the result can be played back and recorded again with new parts added.
The producer bounced the arrangement to disk so the band could review it overnight.
Once the parts are set, they bounce everything to the hard drive for later editing.
Similarrender, export
Note
The computer-age form of bouncing tracks together. Instead of recording onto a spare track, the mix is rendered to storage as a file. Bouncing stems is the everyday collocation. The purpose has not changed: play the result back and build on it with further material.
19
verbtransitive
To attack suddenly and without warning.
The squadron bounced a flight of enemy fighters as they crossed the coast.
Veteran pilots knew how to bounce an opponent out of the sun.
Similarambush, jump, surprise
Note
Fighter pilots' vocabulary: to bounce an enemy is to jump him before he knows you are there. It often appears in the passive, told from the victim's side, as in the squadron was bounced north of the town. That suits a word about being caught unaware. It always takes an object. Without one, the verb would describe a hard landing.
20
verbdatedUStransitive
To eject someone violently from a place, or to dismiss someone abruptly from a job.
The bouncer bounced two rowdy patrons into the street.
Nobody took umbrage and bounced me out of the Union for being a pro.
1946, Yachting
Similareject, expel, fire, sack, dismiss
Oppositeadmit, hire
Note
Dated American slang, mostly heard in the passive or with out of: someone gets bounced out of a bar, or out of a union. Yachting used it this way in 1946, and Gay Community News in 1977. It covers both the doorway and the job. Its noun counterpart, the bounce, meaning dismissal, carries the employment side in giving someone the bounce.
21
nounslangcountable or uncountable
Removal from employment; the sack.
Everyone in the office expected the bounce after the bad quarterly results.
He took the bounce in stride and started job-hunting the next day.
Similarsack, boot, axe, chop, push
Note
Slang for being fired, nearly always with the definite article. Management gives you the bounce, as in Lisa See's China Dolls (2014). Annabelle Gurwitch's Fired! (2007) plays it against the rebound meaning: "It's not the bounce that counts, it's the bounce back." It is the noun partner of throwing someone out.
22
verbslangintransitive
To have sexual intercourse.
She hinted that they had bounced after their third date.
The song is about two people who just want to bounce all night.
Similarcopulate, mate, bang, bonk, hump
Note
Explicit slang from African-American Vernacular English. It is intransitive and often followed by with, as in bouncing with someone. It belongs to a family of AAVE uses of the word, alongside nouns for drugs, swagger, a good beat and a gift for jumping. Because it shares its form with the slang "leave" sense, context has to tell the two apart.
23
noununcountable
A genre of New Orleans hip-hop music characterized by call-and-response chants that are often lewd.
New Orleans bounce filled the speakers as the crowd answered every chant.
Her new album leans heavily into bounce.
24
nounslanguncountable
Confident, stylish self-assurance; swagger.
The young point guard played with undeniable bounce.
There was a certain bounce in the way he dressed and spoke.
Similarswagger, swag, flair, confidence, panache
25
nounslanguncountable
A natural talent for leaping; jumping ability.
The forward's bounce let him grab rebounds over taller players.
Scouts noticed her bounce the moment she went up for the block.
Similarhops, spring, ups
Note
Slang for leaping ability, usually with got or have: them pro-ballers got bounce. Ups and mad ups are its synonyms in the same register. It is uncountable and praises a gift rather than a single jump. One leap is still a bounce in the ordinary physical sense.
26
nounslanguncountable
A strong, danceable beat in a piece of music.
The remix added bounce that the original was missing.
Listeners loved the bounce in the chorus.
Similargroove, beat, swing
Note
Slang praise for rhythm: a track with bounce has a beat that moves people. It is uncountable, so a song has bounce rather than a bounce. It is easily confused with the New Orleans genre, but the two differ. Any record can have bounce without being bounce.
27
nouncountable or uncountable
A hypothetical event in which a collapsing system, such as a universe, reaches extreme density and then rebounds into an expanding phase, reversing the contraction through quantum mechanical effects.
The Big Bounce theory proposes a bounce in place of an initial singularity.
Cosmologists model how a bounce might leave traces in the cosmic microwave background.
Note
Cosmology borrows the playground word for a universe that contracts, reaches extreme density and then rebounds into expansion. Its best-known use is in the name of the Big Bounce theory. The sense is hypothetical, so a bounce should be described as something a model proposes, not as something observed.
28
nouncountable or uncountable
An obstacle for a horse to jump, made of two fences set so close together that the horse can neither take a full stride between them nor clear both at once.
She schooled her mare over a bounce to sharpen its takeoff.
The course designer placed a tricky bounce just before the water jump.
Note
A jumping-course term with a telling alternative name, no-stride. The horse lands from the first fence and must take off for the second at once, with no step between. The name describes that motion: touch down and spring straight up again. Counted, it names a single combination of fences on a course.
29
verbintransitive
To strike the ground at an unsurvivable velocity, with fatal results.
The instructor warned that a tangled reserve could mean the jumper would bounce.
Two skydivers bounced that season when their canopies collided.
Note
Skydivers' grim shorthand for death on impact. It rests on the same image as the aviator's hard landing, but there is no second touchdown. It is intransitive and said of a jumper whose equipment has failed: his rig failed and he bounced. Outside the sport it can sound callous, so it is best left to those who use it among themselves.
30
nounslanguncountable
Illicit drugs; narcotics.
Word on the block was that he moved bounce for the local crew.
Police found a quantity of bounce during the raid.
Similardope, drug, gear, stuff, substance
31
verbarchaic
To intimidate or browbeat someone, or to tell them off angrily.
Would I had him here again, I would so bounce him , I would so thank his lordship for his lewd plot.
1621, John Fletcher, “The Wild-Goose Chase; a Comedy”
32
verbarchaic
To brag loudly or talk big in a swaggering way.
33
verbarchaic
To bang or pound on something, such as a door, so that it makes a sharp, loud noise.
Another bounces as hard as he can knock.
1708, Squire Bickerstaff Detected, John Partridge
34
verbslang
Of a racehorse, to perform badly in the race that follows a strong performance.
35
nounarchaic
A sudden loud explosive noise.
I don't value her resentment the bounce of a cracker.
1773, Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer
36
nounarchaic
A sweet liqueur made by steeping fruit, especially cherries, in brandy with sugar.
A prologue of cherry bounce,—brandy,—preceded the entertainment, which was enlivened by hob-nobs and joyous toasts.
1870, “Irish Life”, in The Saint Pauls Magazine
37
nounarchaic
A hard, abrupt knock or thud, often a noisy one.
The bounce burst ope the door.
1685, John Dryden, The Despairing Lover
38
nounarchaic
Swaggering talk, shameless exaggeration, or a bold lie.
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
39
noun
The lesser spotted dogfish, a small shark of European coastal waters.
40
nounslang
A poor showing by a racehorse in the race right after a strong one.

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English bounsen or bunsen ('to beat, thump'), of uncertain origin. It is perhaps imitative, related to 'bump' or to Middle English bonchen ('to pound, beat') and Dutch bonken ('to bump'), and is cognate with Scots bunce ('to bounce').