the.com/bounce
What a dropped ball does when it refuses to accept the floor's final answer.
means To rebound off a surface after impact, or more loosely, to spring back with energy — whether you're a ball, a check with insufficient funds, or an idea getting kicked around a room.
from Likely echoic in origin — a word built to imitate the sound itself, related to Dutch 'bonzen' (to thump or knock) and German 'bumsen.' It first meant a loud thump or blow in Middle English before it bounced, fittingly, into meaning the rebound that follows one.
- bank slang
- a bounced check means your money didn't stick
- physics term
- coefficient of restitution measures how well things bounce
- club slang
- to bounce someone means to eject them
- 1920s shift
- gained its leave-now slang sense in American English