flounce
/flaʊns/
flounce verb: to move in a bouncy, exaggerated manner.
Verb
flounce (third-person singular simple present flounces, present participle flouncing, simple past and past participle flounced)
- To move in a bouncy, exaggerated manner.
- There was a continual coming and going of flouncing, pig-tailed forms, until the table was closely covered with dishes, scarlet curries with surface currents of ochreous oil, three varieties of what looked like seaweed (inevitably recommended as abundant in vitamins), a paste made of ground beans...1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth
- To depart in a dramatic, haughty way that draws attention to oneself.
- After failing to win the leadership election, he flounced dramatically.
- A-flutter with excitement, she turned the handle. In a moment she flounced back, red with shame and anger—flounced forth from the fairest, whitest, dapperest dairy, wherein was all of the best that the keenest dairy-maid might need.1911 October 26, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson, or, An Oxford Love Story, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, published 1912, →OCLC
- To flounder; to make spastic motions.
- To flutter and flounce will do nothing but batter and bruise us.a. 1678 (date written), Isaac Barrow, “(please specify the chapter name or sermon number)”, in The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: A[braham] J[ohn]...
- With his broad fins and forky tail he laves / The rising surge, and flounces in the waves.1717, Joseph Addison, Metamorphoses
- To decorate with a flounce.
Noun
flounce (plural flounces)
- A strip of decorative material, usually pleated, attached along one edge; a ruffle.
- Then he looked from her to some gayer figures moving along the road with flutters of bright streamers and flounces1900, Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, The Love of Parson Lord: And Other Stories, page 25
- Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […] Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas.1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN
- The act of flouncing; a dramatic departure.
- Emma Watson’s approach is in stark contrast to that of Daniel Day-Lewis; a man who, despite being the greatest actor on earth, is somewhat prone to a flounce. […] Day-Lewis announced that he had retired from acting, putting out a statement that read: “Daniel Day-Lewis will no longer be working as...2025 September 24, Stuart Heritage, “Go quietly and get a side hustle: how to quit acting properly”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
- A row of corrugations, skin folds, or spines, on the hemipenis of a snake.
flounce meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
flounce in Tamil
- தொங்கல், உடலின் குதியாட்டம், குஞ்சம்
flounce in Urdu
- جھالر, پٹخیاں دینا
flounce in Malayalam
- കുടയുക, പായുക, തെറിക്കുക, കൈകാലുകൾ വീശുക
flounce in Kannada
- ಸಿಟ್ಟಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಓಡಾಡು
Examples of flounce in a sentence
- 'Oh certainly,' retorted Tinette impudently, as she flounced out of the room.1956 [1880], Johanna Spyri, Heidi, translation of original by Eileen Hall, page 67:
- You got your ass kicked and instead of admitting you might have made a mistake, you flounced.2002 September 9, PButler111, “Re: OT - Sept. 11th?”, in alt.fan.barry-manilow (Usenet):
- But love Mensch or hate her, don't buy the line that she merely got bored and flounced: for whatever else she achieved in politics, she was never exactly stuck for ways to make it interesting.2012 August 7, Gaby Hinsliff, “The lessons of Louise Mensch's departure? There are none”, in The Guardian:
- Some countries flounced out in a huff; others had never joined in the first place.2025 September 11, Kate Marvel, “‘We’ve done it before’: how not to lose hope in the fight against ecological disaster”, in The Guardian:
Forms of flounce
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | flounces |
| present participle | flouncing |
| past participle | flounced |
| past | flounced |
| Noun | |
| plural | flounces |
Origin of flounce
Probably of North Germanic origin, from Norwegian flunsa (“hurry”), perhaps ultimately imitative. Or, perhaps formed on the pattern of pounce, bounce.
Words formed from flounce
Phrases with flounce
Words that rhyme with flounce
2 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about flounce
- What does flounce mean?
- Flounce means to move in a bouncy, exaggerated manner.
- What is flounce in Tamil?
- Flounce in Tamil is தொங்கல், உடலின் குதியாட்டம், குஞ்சம். See Flounce meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use flounce in a sentence?
- 'Oh certainly,' retorted Tinette impudently, as she flounced out of the room.
- What part of speech is flounce?
- Flounce can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce flounce?
- Flounce is pronounced /flaʊns/.
- What is the past tense of flounce?
- The past tense of flounce is flounced.
Words near flounce in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: flounce (page history and authors); flounce (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); flounce (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); flounce (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); flounce (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-flounce.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-flounce.wav.
Cite this entry: “flounce.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/flounce. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.