bounce / bouns/ • v. [intr.] (of an object, esp. a ball) move quickly away from a surface after hitting it; rebound: the ball bounced off the rim [tr.] he was bouncing the ball against the wall. ∎  rebound repeatedly: the ball bounced away, and he chased it. ∎  (of light, sound, or an electronic signal) come into contact with an object or surface and be reflected: short sound waves bounce off even small objects. ∎  (of a thing) move up and down while remaining essentially in the same position: the gangplank bounced under his confident step. ∎  (of a person) jump repeatedly up and down, typically on something springy: bouncing up and down on the mattress. ∎  [tr.] cause (a child) to move lightly up and down on one's knee as a game: I remember how you used to bounce me on your knee. ∎  move in an energetic or happy manner: Linda bounced in through the open front door. ∎  (of a vehicle) move jerkily along a bumpy surface: the car bounced down the narrow track. ∎  (bounce back) fig. recover well after a setback: admired for his ability to bounce back from injury. ∎  Baseball hit a ball that bounces before reaching a fielder: bouncing out with the bases loaded [tr.] bounced a grounder to third. ∎  inf. (of a check) be returned by a bank when there are insufficient funds to meet it: my rent check bounced. ∎  [tr.] inf. write (a check) on insufficient funds. ∎  [tr.] inf. eject (a troublemaker) forcibly from a nightclub or similar establishment.• n. a rebound of a ball or other object: a bad bounce caused the ball to get away from the second baseman. ∎  an act of jumping or an instance of being moved up and down: every bounce of the truck brought them into fresh contact. ∎  a sudden rise in the level of something: economists agree that there could be a bounce in prices next year. ∎  exuberant self-confidence: the bounce was now back in Jenny's step.PHRASES: be bouncing off the walls inf. be full of nervous excitement or agitation.

Bounce ★★½ 2000 (PG-13)

Ad exec Affleck swaps his airline ticket with a stranger who's anxious to get home to his wife. But since no good deed goes unpunished, the plane crashes and the man is killed. The guilt-stricken Affleck visits the stranger's widow (Paltrow) and winds up falling in love with her, only she doesn't know about their unfortunate connection. Okay, the plot is contrived, predictable, and a little schmaltzy, but it somehow avoids maudlin, and takes pains to make the emotions real. In this, director Roos is aided greatly by Affleck, who turns in some of his best work to date, and Paltrow, who seems less actressy in an understated, smart performance. The two leads were said to be an item during filming. 105m/C VHS, DVD . Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Affleck, Natasha Henstridge, Jennifer Grey, Tony Goldwyn, Joe Morton, David Paymer, Johnny Galecki, Alex D. Linz, Juan Garcia, Sam Robards, Julia Campbell, Michael Laskin, John Levin, David Dorfman; D: Don Roos; W: Don Roos; C: Robert Elswit; M: Mychael Danna.

bounce First in the vb. (bunsen †beat, thump XIII); the application to loud explosive noise, blustering, and bounding like a ball appears in vb., sb., and int. in early XVI; poss. from LG., but perh. of independent imit. orig.

bounce Informal The return of an e-mail message to the original sender when it is not possible to deliver the message, usually because the name of the putative recipient of the e-mail is not known to the receiving system.