BOUNCING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does bouncing mean? 

• BOUNCING (noun)
  The noun BOUNCING has 1 sense:

1. rebounding from an impact (or series of impacts)

  Familiarity information: BOUNCING used as a noun is very rare.

• BOUNCING (adjective)
  The adjective BOUNCING has 2 senses:

1. vigorously healthy

2. marked by lively action

  Familiarity information: BOUNCING used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BOUNCING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Rebounding from an impact (or series of impacts)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

bounce; bouncing

Hypernyms ("bouncing" is a kind of...):

backlash; rebound; recoil; repercussion (a movement back from an impact)

• BOUNCING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Vigorously healthy

Context example:

a bouncing baby

Similar:

healthy (having or indicating good health in body or mind; free from infirmity or disease)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Marked by lively action

Synonyms:

bouncing; bouncy; peppy; spirited; zippy

Context example:

a spirited dance

Similar:

lively (full of life and energy)

 Context examples 

So was Flo, and we kept bouncing from one side to the other, trying to see everything while we were whisking along at the rate of sixty miles an hour.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Alleyne crossed himself as he gazed at this unnatural sight, and could scarce hold his ground with a steady face, when the two dancers, catching sight of him, came bouncing in his direction.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As soon as I was mounted, holding on to Dogger's belt, the supervisor gave the word, and the party struck out at a bouncing trot on the road to Dr. Livesey's house.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He brought me some chops, and vegetables, and took the covers off in such a bouncing manner that I was afraid I must have given him some offence.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

And she began a scene between the two of them, so exact in voice and manner that it seemed to us as if there were really two folk before us: the stern old mother with her hand up like an ear-trumpet, and her flouncing, bouncing daughter.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This flapper is likewise employed diligently to attend his master in his walks, and upon occasion to give him a soft flap on his eyes; because he is always so wrapped up in cogitation, that he is in manifest danger of falling down every precipice, and bouncing his head against every post; and in the streets, of justling others, or being justled himself into the kennel.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Another theory is that dunes might collide and exchange mass - sort of like billiard balls bouncing off one another - until they are the same size and move at the same speed, but we need to validate these theories experimentally.

(Sand dunes can ‘communicate’ with each other, University of Cambridge)

"Now you have been good children, and I'll play anything you like," says Meg, as she leads her assistant cooks upstairs, when the pudding is safely bouncing in the pot.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)