verb. (once literary: now colloquial).—To vex, trouble, punish; now to beat severely. [B. E.: ‘TROUNC’D, troubled, cast in Law, Punisht; I’ll TROUNCE the Rogue, I’ll hamper him’: GROSE: ‘to punish by course of law.’] Whence TROUNCING = a drubbing.
1551. Bible, Judges iv. 15. The Lord TROUNSED [Authorised Version: ‘discomfited’] Sisara and all his charettes.’
c. 1614. BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, The Faithful Friends, i. 2.
| Tap. Well, sir, you’ll dearly answer this: | |
| My master’s constable; he’ll TROUNCE you for’t. |
1772. BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 184.
| Not I, by Jove; for all their bouncing, | |
| I’ll give their rogueships such a TROUNCING. |
1877. M. THOMPSON, Bow-Shooting, in Scribner’s Magazine, xiv. July, 283. We threatened to TROUNCE him roundly when he got sober, but that great black, appealing face repelled our anger, and we forgave him.
