bounce
     n 1: the quality of a substance that is able to rebound [syn: {bounciness}]
     2: a light springing movement upwards or forwards [syn: {leap},
         {leaping}, {spring}, {saltation}, {bound}]
     3: rebounding from an impact (or series of impacts) [syn: {bouncing}]
     v 1: spring back; spring away from an impact; "The rubber ball
          bounced"; "These particles do not resile but they unite
          after they collide" [syn: {resile}, {take a hop}, {spring},
           {bound}, {rebound}, {recoil}, {reverberate}, {ricochet}]
     2: hit something so that it bounces; "bounce a ball"
     3: move up and down repeatedly [syn: {jounce}]
     4: come back after being refused; "the check bounced" [ant: {clear}]
     5: leap suddenly; "He bounced to his feet"
     6: refuse to accept and send back; "bounce a check"
     7: eject from the premises; "The ex-boxer's job is to bounce
        people who want to enter this private club"
Source: WordNet® 2.0

bounce v. 1. [common; perhaps by analogy to a bouncing check] An
   electronic mail message that is undeliverable and returns an error
   notification to the sender is said to `bounce'. See also {bounce
   message}. 2. [Stanford] To play volleyball. The now-demolished {D. C.
   Power Lab} building used by the Stanford AI Lab in the 1970s had a
   volleyball court on the front lawn. From 5 P.M. to 7 P.M. was the
   scheduled maintenance time for the computer, so every afternoon at 5
   would come over the intercom the cry: "Now hear this: bounce, bounce!",
   followed by Brian McCune loudly bouncing a volleyball on the floor
   outside the offices of known volleyballers. 3. To engage in sexual
   intercourse; prob. from the expression `bouncing the mattress', but
   influenced by Roo's psychosexually loaded "Try bouncing me, Tigger!"
   from the "Winnie-the-Pooh" books. Compare {boink}. 4. To casually reboot
   a system in order to clear up a transient problem (possibly editing a
   configuration file in the process, if it is one that is only re-read at
   boot time). Reported primarily among {VMS} and {Unix} users. 5. [VM/CMS
   programmers] _Automatic_ warm-start of a machine after an error. "I
   logged on this morning and found it had bounced 7 times during the
   night" 6. [IBM] To {power cycle} a peripheral in order to reset it.


Source: The Jargon File