Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use trounce in a sentence

16 example sentences · verb, noun

Trounce means to beat severely; to thrash. Example: “The German team trounced the Brazilians by 7 goals to 1.”

Examples of trounce by meaning

verbTo beat severely; to thrash.

  • ‘Seize me these runnion caitiffs, trounce them, bounce them, bolt and shackle them!’1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 92

verbTo beat or overcome thoroughly, to defeat heavily; especially (games, sports) to win against (someone) by a wide margin.

  • The German team trounced the Brazilians by 7 goals to 1.
  • Smith declined the offer and surprised everyone by trouncing three popular opponents in the Republican primary.1994, Isobel V. Morin, “Margaret Chase Smith: A Woman’s Place is in the House and in the Senate”, in Women of the U.S. Congress (Profiles)...
  • I dislike bragging, but Edward and I trounced the opposition in the debate on state's rights last week.2003, Lauraine Snelling, More Than a Dream (Return to Red River; 3), Bloomington, Minn.: Bethany House Publishers, →ISBN, page 237

nounAn act of trouncing: a severe beating, a thrashing; a thorough defeat.

  • She could hear the maid beating the pillows—a trounce for each—and tossing them into a pile where they fell with a plump.1928, Madge Jenison, Dominance, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Company, →OCLC, page 193

verbTo pass across or over; to traverse.

  • If I don't he thinks I'm not participating." Aly got up and trounced over to the bookcase.1998, Jill Barnett, “[Old Things] Chapter 8”, in Debbie Macomber, Susan Wiggs, Jill Barnett, That Summer Place, New York, N.Y.: Mira...

verbTo travel quickly over a long distance.

  • Lyra trounces into the kitchen, a smile on her face.2005, Lisa Samson, chapter 24, in Club Sandwich: A Novel, Colorado Springs, Colo.: WaterBrook Press, Random House, →ISBN, page 286
  • Don't thank us, then, she snaps, and trounces off down the road.2009, Jacob Polley, chapter 13, in Talk of the Town, London: Picador, →ISBN; republished London: Picador, 2010, →ISBN, page 121

More sentences with trounce

  • During the second half of the soccer game, the Skopjan side trounced the inexperienced team from Bitola.From the entry Skopjan
  • All of Jones’s maneuvers to trounce Kennedy.From the entry all
  • The Knicks trounced the Rockets on Sunday.From the entry trounced
  • The wisdom of the soil trounces city wit in stories meant for townspeople.2001, John [Graham Wilmot] Henderson, Telling Tales on Caesar: Roman Stories from Phaedrus, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 126. From the entry adoxographical
  • Mrs Dibble was resentful and peevish at having been trounced into employing old Peter.1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 67. From the entry agen
  • That’s a good reminder of how they won the referendum: these cavalier romancers trounced the roundhead number-cruncher remainers.2025 December 9, Polly Toynbee, “Come with me to Jacob Rees-Mogg’s house. The Brexiters are rattled – and it shows”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry romancer
  • When a 47-year-old becomes president by trouncing a 72-year-old opponent, there’s every reason to think that the tide is turning youthward.2009 February 12, Gail Collins, “The Stump Theory”, in New York Times. From the entry youthward
  • For all its silliness and underinventiveness, Rats stands no chance of being trounced by the culturally predatory Cats.1984 February 4, Michael Bronski, “Cats: Straight and Boring”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 28, page 17. From the entry underinventiveness

Meaning of trounce

  1. verb To beat severely; to thrash.
  2. verb To beat or overcome thoroughly, to defeat heavily; especially (games, sports) to win against (someone) by a wide margin.
  3. verb To chastise or punish physically or verbally; to scold with abusive language.

Full definition of trounce

Questions about trounce in a sentence

How do you use trounce in a sentence?
Trounce is used as a verb and noun. For example: “The German team trounced the Brazilians by 7 goals to 1.”
What is a short sentence with trounce?
“All of Jones’s maneuvers to trounce Kennedy.”
What does trounce mean?
Trounce means to beat severely; to thrash.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: trounce (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use trounce in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/trounce. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.