jounce

/d͡ʒaʊn(t)s/

jounce verb: to shake (someone or something) up and down, for example, by driving a vehicle over obstructions or riding a horse roughly; to jolt.

Verb

jounce (third-person singular simple present jounces, present participle jouncing, simple past and past participle jounced)

(transitive) To shake (someone or something) up and down, for example, by driving a vehicle over obstructions or riding a horse roughly; to jolt.
- If any vvillbe ſo vvilfull as to denie Riding to be an exerciſe and that a great one, and fitteſt alſo for greateſt perſonages, ſet him either vpon a trotting iade to iounſe him thoroughly or vpon a lame hakney to make him exerciſe his feete, vvhen his courſer failes him.1581, Richard Mulcaster, “Of Riding”, in Positions wherin Those Primitive Circvmstances be Examined, which are Necessarie for the Training Vp of Children, either for Skill in Their Booke, or Health...
- [T]hat air feller, what dooze he do, but he jounces me up on that air plaguy crupper and fetches me back here full split, you see, and rides over everything, and makes everybody get out o' the way, […]1828, John Neal, chapter VI, in Rachel Dyer: A North American Story, Portland, Me.: Shirley and Hyde, →OCLC, pages 79–80
(intransitive) To move vigorously up and down; to bounce, to bump, to jolt; also, to fall and hit something heavily.
- Near-synonym: jostle
- The lawyer was jouncing along towards the house with a lantern in his hand.1887, Hall Caine, chapter VIII, in A Son of Hagar: A Romance of Our Time […], volume I, London: Chatto and Windus, […], →OCLC, 1st book (Retro Me, Sathana), page 156
Synonyms:

jostle

Noun

jounce (plural jounces)

A vigorous up-and-down movement; a jolt, a shake.
- Take care of the grips, or we shall have some jounces [jolts], and keep the middle of the road over Woolpit warren, for the sides are caved in, […]1823 December, “Art[icle] IV. Suffolk Words and Phrases; or, an Attempt to Correct the Lingual Localities of that County. By Edward Moor, F.R.S. F.A.S., &c. 12mo. 525 pp. 10s. 6d. Hunter. 1823. [book...
- […] I protest that an open wagon is the very best thing to ride in that ever was invented. If it is hard in the springs, so much the merrier! […] Off we started with a jounce over the barn-door sill, that nearly dislocated my neck, and a violent nodding to my cousin's wife that set it all right...1852 May, “The Logging Encampment. A Sketch of the Woods.”, in F[rederic] D[an] Huntington, editor, The Monthly Religious Magazine, volume VII (Second Series; volume IX overall), number 5, Boston...
Synonyms:

jouncing
The fourth derivative of the position vector with respect to time; the time derivative of jerk.
- The fourth derivative (jounce) may be used to find the tangential and normal loci in the same manner as for the second and third order properties.1974, Arvid Myklebust, “Recommendations and Conclusions”, in Synthesis of Multi-link Mechanisms for Dynamic Specifications: A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of...
- When you are in an elevator that is not working properly, and your stomach feels as if it were left behind on the previous floor, then you are experiencing jerk. […] No term for the rate of change of jerk, the fourth derivative of position, is in widespread usage, although jounce has been suggested.[2011, Brian E. Blank, Steven G[eorge] Krantz, “The Derivative”, in Calculus: Single & Multivariable, 2nd edition, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 232
Synonyms:

snap

jounce meaning in Urdu

jounce in Urdu

to jounce: اچھلنا uchalnā

Examples of jounce in a sentence

Harvey Cheyne's wife, she were sick back, an' we didn't want to jounce her.1896 November – 1897 May, Rudyard Kipling, chapter X, in “Captains Courageous”, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, published 1897...
I ask you if one, having a drawn sword in one hand and its scabbard in the other, jounceth the scabbard—is it to impede the sword?1909, “[Letters of Obscure Men (Part I).] [Letter] XLV: Arnold von Tongern, Magister Noster of Holy Scripture, Sendeth Greeting to Magister...
The bed jounced when Mannie sat down on it where the medic had been sitting.1971 March and May, Ursula K[roeber] Le Guin, chapter 1, in The Lathe of Heaven, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1971...
He who throws them all overboard rises with ease, but is likely to come down with a jounce.1853 January, Edward Wigglesworth, “Art[icle] III.—Reflections.”, in The Christian Examiner and Religious Miscellany, volume XIX, number I...

Synonyms of jounce

Forms of jounce

Verb
third-person singular present	jounces
present participle	jouncing
past participle	jounced
past	jounced
Noun
plural	jounces

Origin of jounce

The verb is derived from Late Middle English *jouncen (“to jolt violently”) (evidenced by jouncinge (“violent jolting movement”)); further etymology unknown, possibly imitative. The noun is probably derived from the verb as it is attested later.

Words formed from jounce

jouncing
jouncingly
rejounce
jouncy
jounce bumper

Words that rhyme with jounce

2 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about jounce

What does jounce mean?: Jounce means to shake (someone or something) up and down, for example, by driving a vehicle over obstructions or riding a horse roughly; to jolt.
What is jounce in Urdu?: Jounce in Urdu is اچھلنا (uchalnā). See Jounce meaning in Urdu.
How do you use jounce in a sentence?: Harvey Cheyne's wife, she were sick back, an' we didn't want to jounce her.
What part of speech is jounce?: Jounce can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce jounce?: Jounce is pronounced /d͡ʒaʊn(t)s/ (UK).
What is the past tense of jounce?: The past tense of jounce is jounced.

Words near jounce in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: jounce (page history and authors); اچھلنا (Urdu) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-jounce.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-jounce.wav.

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