Forms: 3 bunsen, 4–7 bounse, 6–7 bownce, 6– bounce.

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  [The origin of BOUNCE v., sb.1, int. (adv.) is obscure, and their mutual relations complicated. ME. bunsen agrees in form and meaning with mod.Du. bons a thump, bonzen (LG. bunsen, HG. dial. bumbsen) to beat, thump, thwack; but there is no early record of these words, and perh. they may be related to the Eng. word merely as parallel onomatopæic formations. Early in 16th c. we find the interjectional use of bounce (= LG. and HG. dial. bums!) to imitate the report of a gun or other loud sudden noise, and (a little later) to express sudden or violent movement. About the same time the vb. (previously seldom occurring) became common in its original sense ‘to beat,’ but with the notion of noise or vehemence more conspicuous—‘to knock, bang’; it also acquired the senses ‘to make a banging or explosive noise,’ and ‘to make a sudden or violent movement of a bounding nature.’ The sb. is also found in all these senses early in the 16th c. Whether these were natural developments of the original sense, as expressing phenomena which often accompany a knock or thump, or at least are present in the bang of cannon (which had come into use just before these extensions of bounce), or whether there has been influence of any other words is not clear. The development of sense, however, is to a great extent parallel to that of BANG, which has dialectally even the sense of ‘bounce into a room,’ etc.]

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  I.  To beat, thump, trounce, knock.

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  † 1.  trans. Obs.

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a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 188. Þer ȝe schulen iseon bunsen ham mit tes deofles bettles.

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1387.  Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. I. 281. Þis Pypinus gat Charles þat heet Tutidis of tundere, þat is ‘bete and bounse.’

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1560.  Nice Wanton, in Hazl., Dodsl., II. 167. Yet Salomon sober correction doth mean, Not to beat and bounce them to make them lame.

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1596.  Spenser, F. Q., III. xi. 27. And wilfully him throwing on the gras Did beat and bounse his head and brest full sore.

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1652.  Benlowes, Theoph., X. xxxix. 184. We seem’d to knock at hell, and bounce the firmament.

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1682.  N. O., Boileau’s Lutrin, III. 186. I’le trounce and bounce thee for ’t i’ th’ Spiritual Court.

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1727.  Swift, Gulliver, III. ii. 184. Bouncing his head against every post.

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1801.  Mar. Edgeworth, Good Fr. Gov. (1831), 122. She has taught me to read without bouncing me about and shaking me.

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  † 2.  intr. To knock loudly, esp. at a door. Obs.

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1570.  B. Googe, Popish Kingd., iv. 38. On the Thursday Boyes and Girles do runne in euery place, and bounce and beate at euery doore.

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1591.  Lyly, Endym., IV. ii. 56. Come my browne bils wee’l roare Bownce loud at taverne dore.

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1656.  Trapp, Comm. Matt. v. 20. They shall come knocking and bouncing, with ‘Lord, Lord, open unto us.’

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1708.  Swift, Wks. (1841), II. 256. Another bounces as hard as he can knock.

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  II.  To make a loud explosive noise, to talk loudly or bigly.

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  † 3.  intr. To make a noise of explosion, to go ‘bang.’ Obs.

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1552.  Huloet, Bouncen or cracke, crepo.

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c. 1700.  in Hearne, Coll., II. 456. Fir’d the Train, And made it bounce louder and louder.

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1719.  Ramsay, Wks. (1848), I. 149. Where cannon bounced and rearing horses pranced.

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  b.  trans. To slam, to bang (a door).

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1786.  Wolcott (P. Pindar), Ep. Boswell, Wks. 1794, I. 321. What though against thee porters bounce the door.

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  4.  intr. To talk big, bluster, hector; to swagger. To bounce out (with): to blurt out ‘roundly.’

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c. 1626.  Dick of Devon, II. iv. in Bullen, O. Pl., II. 38. Are you bouncing? Ile no further.

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a. 1659.  Cleveland, Gen. Poems (1677), 137. There he bounceth out with his εὔρηκα.

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1758.  Johnson, Idler, No. 28, ¶ 5. Let him bounce at his customers if he dares.

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1765.  Bp. Lowth, Lett. to Warburton, 14. He … bounces, blusters, and swaggers, as if he were really sovereign Lord.

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1848.  Thackeray, Van. Fair, lxv. ‘She’s the finest lady I ever met in my life,’ bounced out the Major.

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1872.  F. W. Robinson, Wrayford’s W., Tito’s Troubles. You must not let the big boys bounce … over him too much.

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  b.  trans. To proclaim with bounce.

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a. 1652.  Brome, Queen, I. iii. 6. I may not hear these wonders bounc’d.

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  5.  trans. To talk big at; to bully. In modern colloq. use, To ‘blow up,’ scold roundly.

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a. 1626.  Fletcher, Nt. Walker, IV. i. I doe so whirle her to the Counsellors chambers … and bounce her for more money.

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1812.  J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., To bounce a person out of any thing, is to use threatening or high words, in order to intimidate him, and attain the object you are intent upon.

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1883.  Manch. Exam., 30 Nov., 5/2. French statesmen persuaded themselves … that they could ‘bounce’ their opponents out of a slice of territory in Tonquin.

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Mod. colloq.  The clerk was well bounced for his carelessness.

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  III.  intr. To move with a sudden bound.

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  6.  To bound like a ball; to throw oneself about: esp. said of an elastic or bounding movement by a heavy or bulky body. In early use To bounce it (said of a woman dancing): cf. L. humum pulsare ‘to thump or pounce the ground.’

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1519.  Interl. Four Elem., in Hazl., Dodsl., I. 35. She will bounce it, she will whip, Yea, clean above the ground!

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1589.  Gold. Mirr. (1851), 54. See where one bounseth in a players gowne.

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1601.  Shaks., Per., II. i. 26. I saw the porpus, how he bounced and tumbled.

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1743–4.  Mrs. Delany, Autobiog. (1861), II. 254. My heart bounced for joy at the news of your good house.

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1787.  Best, Angling (ed. 2), 35. When you have struck him, he will plunge and bounce in the water very much.

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1802.  I. Milner, Life, xiv. (1842), 261. All in one instant, it bounced into my mind, that there must be an opening in the said brass rods.

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1812.  H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., 40. Nine centuries bounced he from cavern to rock.

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1839.  Bailey, Festus, v. God puts his finger in the other scale, And up we bounce, a bubble.

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1851.  O. W. Holmes, A Song of ’29. A cannon bullet rolling Comes ‘bouncing’ down the stairs.

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a. 1859.  De Quincey, Bentley, Wks. VI. 84. The judges bounced like quicksilver.

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1883.  Browning, Jochanan Hakkadosh, in Jocoseria, 127. Yet is the Ruach (… The imparted Spirit) in no haste to bounce From its entrusted Body.

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Mod.  This ball is split, and will not bounce at all.

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  7.  To come or go as unceremoniously as a tossed ball, to throw oneself with excess of physical momentum; to burst unceremoniously into, out of.

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1679.  Hist. Jetzer, 4. The Receiver, Cook, and Mr. Novice, came bouncing in.

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1827.  Scott, Diary, in Lockhart, xxiv. The French … bounce in at all hours and drive one half mad with compliments.

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1851.  Helps, Comp. Solit., iv. (1874), 45. The market-gardener’s wife, little attended to, bounces out of the room.

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1883.  Ld. Saltoun, Scraps, I. iii. 264. The innkeeper’s wife bounced into the room.

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  8.  trans. To discharge suddenly from employment. U.S. [Of uncertain origin.]

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1884.  Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 3 Oct., 2/3. Speaker Carlisle has bounced his clerk, Mr. Nelson, for telling tales out of school.

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1885.  Milnor (Dakota) Teller, 5 June, 5/2. Tuller, Judge Hudson’s imported clerk of the court at Lisbon, is likely to be bounced, and Hugh Doherty appointed.

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