Word.ws English Dictionary

flouncing

flouncing is the present participle and gerund of flounce.

Meaning of flounce

Verb

flounce (third-person singular simple present flounces, present participle flouncing, simple past and past participle flounced)

  1. 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
  2. To depart in a dramatic, haughty way that draws attention to oneself.
    • After failing to win the leadership election, he flounced dramatically.
  3. (archaic) 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]...
  4. To decorate with a flounce.

See all 7 meanings of flounce

Noun

flouncing (plural flouncings)

  1. A flounce (strip of decorative material).
    • A very rich lama and net dress, elegantly embroidered and bordered with rich lama flouncings, trimmed with blond lace, over a rich white satin slip […]1816, La Belle Assemblée: or, Bell's Court and Fashionable Magazine, page 4
    • Mantillas are larger than last year, and are generally all worn with a deep flouncing, either of the same material, or of black lace; the mantilla itself is also much trimmed with small ruchings of ribbon, guip and guipure lace, laid on quite flat.1855, “Mantillas and Shawls”, in Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion, volume XLVI, number 4, Philadelphia, Pa.: Abraham H. See, 106 Chestnut Street, →OCLC, page 578

Forms of flouncing

pluralflouncings

Questions about flouncing

What does flouncing mean?
Flouncing means a flounce (strip of decorative material).
What is flouncing the present participle and gerund of?
Flouncing is the present participle and gerund of flounce.
What part of speech is flouncing?
Flouncing is a noun.
What is the plural of flouncing?
The plural of flouncing is flouncings.

Words near flouncing in the dictionary

  1. flouncey
  2. flouncier
  3. flounciest
  4. flouncily
  5. flounciness
  6. flouncing
  7. flouncingly
  8. flouncings
  9. flouncy
  10. flounder
  11. floundered

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: flouncing (page history and authors); flounce (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.

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Cite this entry: “flouncing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/flouncing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.