subs. (old).—1. A bully; hector; blusterer; one who talks swaggeringly.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. BOUNCER, c. a Bully.
1748. T. DYCHE, A New General English Dictionary (5 ed.). BOUNCER (s.), a bully or hectoring bravado.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, IV. 24. Those who cheat the Public … BOUNCERS and Besters defrauding by laying wagers, swaggering, or using threats.
2. (thieves’).—A thief who steals goods from shop counters while bargaining with the tradesman; a SHOPLIFTER (q.v.). Fr. dégringoleur, the practice being dégringoler à la carre.
3. (common).—A lie; a liar.
1762. FOOTE, The Liar, II., i. He will tell you more lyes in an hour, than all the circulating libraries, put together, will publish in a year…. He was always distinguish’d by the facetious appellation of the BOUNCER.
1833. MARRYAT, Peter Simple, II. xii. ‘He’s … such a BOUNCER!!… I mean that he’s the greatest liar that ever walked a deck.’
1872. M. E. BRADDON, Dead-Sea Fruit, xxii. ‘In that case, I should say wait, and put your trust in Time—Time, the father of Truth, as Mary Stuart called him when she wanted to go in for a BOUNCER,—and oh, what an incredible number of royal BOUNCERS were carried to and fro in the despatches of that period!’
1596. NASHE, Have with You to Saffron-Walden, in Wks. III., 140. My Book will grow such a BOUNCER, that those which buy it must bee faine to hire a porter to carry it after them in a basket.
5. (American).—A CHUCKER-OUT (q.v.).
1883. Daily News, July 26, 4, 8. The other fresh American type is less remarkable—the BOUNCER. One might suppose that a BOUNCER was a noisy braggart; but no. A scientific writer in the Nation describes a BOUNCER as a ‘silent, strong man.’ Everyone who mixes much in society in Whitechapel will understand the functions of the BOUNCER, when we explain that he is merely the English ‘chucker-out.’
7. (naval).—A gun that KICKS (q.v.) when fired.
