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 love with you directly; or if that is too great a bounce—and indeed very few of them have the slightest pretensions to beauty—you need only hint that he rides gallantly.

1880. Blackwood's Mag., May, p. 670. The whole heroic adventure was the veriest bounce, the merest bunkum!

2. Impudence; cheek; brass (q.v.).

1872-4. John Forster, Life of Dickens, ch. lx. It is the face of the Webster type, but without the bounce of Webster's face.

3. A boaster; swaggerer; showy swindler; bully. Cf., Bouncer.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. Bounce, a person well or fashionably drest is said to be a rank bounce.

Verb.—1. To boast; bluster; hector; bully; blow up.

1633. Fletcher, Nt. Walkers, IV., i. I doe so whirle her to the Counsellors' chambers and bounce her for more money.

1698. Ward, London Spy, pt. XVIII., p. 428. With lies he tells his Bloody Feats, And Bounces like a Bully.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Bounce (v.), to swagger, boast, crack, stump, or pretend to great matters.

1749. Walpole, Lett, to Mann, 3 May (1833), vol. II., p. 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, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. v. 'He'll be drinking at all the places coming along to get his courage up to bounce me.'

1883. Daily News, July 26, p. 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. To lie; to cheat; to swindle.

1762. Foote, Liar, II., i. If it had come to an oath, I don't think he would have bounced.

1863. H. Kingsley, Austin Elliot, ch. x. 'It's them gals, Mr. Austin, got a shilling of mine among un somewhere, and wants to bounce me out of it.'

On the bounce, phr. (common).—In a state of spasmodic movement; general liveliness.

1889. Sporting Times, June 29. Funny to a degree was it to watch some of the select and chosen of Lord Coventry, Major Clements, and those that rule the interior of the Invited Enclosure at Ascot. Several well known defaulters would be observed going to and fro 'on the bounce,' including one young gentleman who once signed his surname uninitialled to a cheque which was cashed by a confiding tradesman, who took the said endorsement for that of his baronial parent.

To get the grand bounce, phr. (American).—This is equivalent, in political parlance, to dismissal, especially in reference to government appointments.

Bounceable, adj. (common).—Prone to bouncing or boasting; 'uppish'; 'bumptious.' [From bounce (q.v.) + able.]

1830. S. Warren, Diary of a Late Physician, ch. xvi. As soon as we had exhibited sundry doses of Irish cordial to our friend Tip—under the effects of which he became quite bouncible, and ranted about the feat he was to take a prominent part in.

1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, ch. iv. I heard that Mr. Sharp's wig didn't fit him; and that he needn't be so bounceable—somebody else said 'bumptious'—about it.

Bouncer, subs. (common).—1. A bully; hector; blusterer; one who talks swaggeringly. [From the verb bounce, senses 1 and 2, + er.]

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (4 ed.). Bouncer (s.), a bully or hectoring bravado.

1851-61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 24. Those who cheat the