subs. (common).—1. Brag; swagger; boastful falsehood; exaggeration.
1714. STEELE, The Lover (1723), 93. This is supposed to be only a BOUNCE.
1748. T. DYCHE, A New General English Dictionary (5 ed.). BOUNCE (s.) … also the bluff, brag, or swaggering of a bully or great pretender.
1765. GOLDSMITH, The Haunch of Venison, l. 14.
| But hold—let me pause—don’t I hear you pronounce, | |
| This tale of the bacon’s a damnable BOUNCE? |
1856. WHYTE-MELVILLE, Kate Coventry, i. Only tell a man you think him good-looking, and he falls in love with you directly; or if that is too great a BOUNCE … you need only hint that he rides gallantly.
1880. Blackwood’s Magazine, May, 670. The whole heroic adventure was the veriest BOUNCE, the merest bunkum!
2. Impudence; cheek; BRASS (q.v.).
1872–4. JOHN FORSTER, The Life of Charles Dickens, lx. It is the face of the Webster type, but without the BOUNCE of Webster’s face.
3. A boaster; swaggerer; showy swindler; bully: also cf. BOUNCER (q.v.).
1819. J. H. VAUX, A Vocabulary of the Flash Language. BOUNCE, a person well or fashionably drest, is said to be a RANK BOUNCE.
4. (common).—Cherry brandy.
Verb. (common).—1. To boast; bluster; hector; bully; blow up.
1633. FLETCHER, The Night-Walker, or the Little Thief, IV., i.
| I doe so whirle her to the Counsellors’ chambers, | |
| And back again, and BOUNCE her for more money. |
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. BOUNCE, to boast and vapour. A meer BOUNCE, a Swaggering Fellow.
1698. WARD, The London Spy, XVIII., 428.
| With lies he tells his Bloody Feats, | |
| And BOUNCES like a Bully. |
1707. WARD, Hudibras Redivivus, II. 3. The BOUNCING Quack’s alluring Babble.
1748. T. DYCHE, A New General English Dictionary (5 ed.). BOUNCE (v.), to swagger, boast, crack, stump, or pretend to great manners.
1749. WALPOLE, Letter to Sir Horace Mann, 3 May (1833), II., 374. The Lords had four tickets a-piece, and each Commoner at first but two, till the Speaker BOUNCED, and obtained a third.
1760. COLMAN, Polly Honeycombe, in wks. (1777) IV., 55. Nay, nay, old gentleman, no BOUNCING; you’re mistaken in your man, sir!
1859. H. KINGSLEY, Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn, v. ‘He’ll be drinking at all the places coming along to get his courage up to BOUNCE me.’
1883. Daily News, July 26, 4, col. 8. To BOUNCE is simply to prevail on persons whose mirth interferes with the general enjoyment to withdraw from society which they embarrass rather than adorn.
2. (common).—To lie; to cheat; to swindle.
1762. FOOTE, The Liar, II., i. If it had come to an oath, I don’t think he would have BOUNCED.
1863. H. KINGSLEY, Austin Elliot, x. ‘It’s them gals, Mr. Austin, got a shilling of mine among un somewhere, and wants to BOUNCE me out of it.’
3. (venery).—To possess a woman: see GREENS and KIDS.
TO GET THE GRAND BOUNCE, phr. (American).—To be summarily dismissed; to be CHUCKED OUT (q.v.): also, in political parlance; to be thrown out of office.
ON THE BOUNCE, phr. (common).—In a state of spasmodic movement; general liveliness.
1889. The Sporting Times, 29 June. Several well known defaulters would be observed going to and fro ON THE BOUNCE.
