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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

bounce.

To change the direction of motion after hitting an obstacle.

6 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/baʊns//buːns/Northumbria
  1. To change the direction of motion after hitting an obstacle.

    intransitive
    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.

    intransitive
    He bounces nervously on his chair.
  3. To cause to move quickly up and down, or back and forth, once or repeatedly.

    transitive
    He bounced the child on his knee.
    The children were bouncing a ball against a wall.
  4. To suggest or introduce (an idea, etc.) to (off or by) someone, in order to gain feedback.

    colloquial · transitive
    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.

    intransitive
    She bounced happily into the room.
  6. To move rapidly (between).

  7. To be refused by a bank because it is drawn on insufficient funds.

    informal · intransitive
    We can’t accept further checks from you, as your last one bounced.
  8. To fail to cover (have sufficient funds for) (a cheque/check drawn on one's account).

    informal · transitive
    He tends to bounce a check or two toward the end of each month, before his payday.
  9. To leave.

    intransitive · slang
    Let’s wrap this up, I gotta bounce.
  10. To eject violently, as from a room; to discharge unceremoniously, as from employment.

    US · dated · slang · transitive
  11. To eject violently, as from a room; to discharge unceremoniously, as from employment. To work as a bouncer.

    US · dated · intransitive · slang · transitive
    I met him back when he bounced at the bar where I worked.
  12. To have sexual intercourse.

    intransitive · slang · sometimes
  13. To attack unexpectedly.

    transitive
    The squadron was bounced north of the town.
  14. To turn power to (a device) off and back on; to reset; to reboot.

    transitive
    See if it helps to bounce the router.
  15. To return undelivered.

    Internet · ergative
    What’s your new email address? The old one bounces.
    The girl in the bar told me her address was [email protected], but my mail to that address was bounced back by the server.
  16. To land hard and lift off again due to excess momentum.

    intransitive
    The student pilot bounced several times during his landing.
  17. To land hard at unsurvivable velocity with fatal results.

    intransitive
    After the mid-air collision, his rig failed and he bounced.
  18. 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.

    transitive
    Bounce tracks two and three to track four, then record the cowbell on track two.
  19. 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
  20. To bully; to scold.

    archaic · slang
  21. To boast; to bluster.

    archaic · slang
  22. To strike or thump, so as to make a sudden noise upon rebound; to knock loudly.

    archaic
  23. To race poorly after a successful race.

    slang
  24. To 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.

    slang
Where this word comes from

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”).

noun/baʊns//buːns/Northumbria
  1. A change of direction of motion after hitting the ground or an obstacle.

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

    countable · uncountable
  3. An email that returns to the sender because of a delivery failure.

    Internet · countable · uncountable
  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.

    countable · uncountable
  5. The sack, dismissal.

    countable · slang · uncountable
  6. A bang, boom.

    archaic · countable · uncountable
  7. A drink based on brandy, cherry bounce.

    archaic · countable · uncountable
  8. A heavy, sudden, and often noisy, blow or thump.

    archaic · countable · uncountable
  9. Bluster; brag; untruthful boasting; audacious exaggeration; an impudent lie; a bouncer.

    archaic · countable · uncountable
  10. Scyliorhinus canicula, a European dogfish.

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

    uncountable
  12. Drugs.

    slang · uncountable
  13. Swagger.

    slang · uncountable
  14. A good beat in music.

    slang · uncountable
  15. A talent for leaping.

    slang · uncountable
    Them pro-ballers got bounce!
  16. An increase in popularity.

    countable · informal · uncountable
  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.

    countable · uncountable
  18. The situation where a horse races poorly after a successful race.

    countable · slang · uncountable
Where this word comes from

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”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.