bounce.
To change the direction of motion after hitting an obstacle.
Meaning & usage
To change the direction of motion after hitting an obstacle.
The tennis ball bounced off the wall before coming to rest in the ditch.
To move quickly up and then down (or vice versa), once or repeatedly.
He bounces nervously on his chair.
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.
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.
To leap or spring suddenly or unceremoniously; to bound.
She bounced happily into the room.
To move rapidly (between).
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.
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.
To leave.
Let’s wrap this up, I gotta bounce.
To eject violently, as from a room; to discharge unceremoniously, as from employment.
To eject violently, as from a room; to discharge unceremoniously, as from employment. To work as a bouncer.
I met him back when he bounced at the bar where I worked.
To have sexual intercourse.
To attack unexpectedly.
The squadron was bounced north of the town.
To turn power to (a device) off and back on; to reset; to reboot.
See if it helps to bounce the router.
To return undelivered.
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.
To land hard and lift off again due to excess momentum.
The student pilot bounced several times during his landing.
To land hard at unsurvivable velocity with fatal results.
After the mid-air collision, his rig failed and he bounced.
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.
Bounce tracks two and three to track four, then record the cowbell on track two.
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
To bully; to scold.
To boast; to bluster.
To strike or thump, so as to make a sudden noise upon rebound; to knock loudly.
To race poorly after a successful race.
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.
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”).
A change of direction of motion after hitting the ground or an obstacle.
A movement up and then down (or vice versa), once or repeatedly.
An email that returns to the sender because of a delivery failure.
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.
The sack, dismissal.
A bang, boom.
A drink based on brandy, cherry bounce.
A heavy, sudden, and often noisy, blow or thump.
Bluster; brag; untruthful boasting; audacious exaggeration; an impudent lie; a bouncer.
Scyliorhinus canicula, a European dogfish.
A genre of hip-hop music of New Orleans, characterized by often lewd call-and-response chants.
Drugs.
Swagger.
A good beat in music.
A talent for leaping.
Them pro-ballers got bounce!
An increase in popularity.
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.
The situation where a horse races poorly after a successful race.
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.