Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To bound or spring back; fly back from force of impact, as an elastic or free-moving body striking against a solid substance.
  • To bound or bounce again; repeat a bound or spring; make repeated bounds or springs.
  • To fall back; recoil, as to a starting-point or a former state; return as with a spring.
  • To send sounds back and forth; reverberate; resound; reëcho.
  • Synonyms Rebound, Reverberate, Recoil. Rebound and reverberate apply to that which strikes an unyielding object and bounds back or away; recoil applies to that which springs back from a position of rest, as a cannon or rifle when discharged, or a man and a rattlesnake when they discover their proximity to each other. Reverberate, by onomatopœia, applies chiefly to heavy sounds, but has other special uses (see the word); it has no figurative extension. Recoil is most freely used in figure: as, a man's treachery recoils upon himself; in sudden fright the blood recoils upon the heart.
  • To throw or drive back, as sound; make an echo or reverberation of; repeat as an echo or echoes.
  • noun The act of flying back on collision with another body; a bounding back or in reverse; resilience; recoil; reëcho; reverberation.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of rebounding; resilience.
  • noun recovery, as from sickness, psychological shock, or disappointment.
  • transitive verb To send back; to reverberate.
  • intransitive verb To spring back; to start back; to be sent back or reverberated by elastic force on collision with another body.
  • intransitive verb rare To give back an echo.
  • intransitive verb To bound again or repeatedly, as a horse.
  • intransitive verb to recover, as from sickness, psychological shock, or disappointment.
  • intransitive verb (Firearms) one in which the hammer rebounds to half cock after striking the cap or primer.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The recoil of an object bouncing off another.
  • noun A return to health or well-being; a recovery.
  • noun An effort to recover from a setback.
  • noun A romantic partner with whom one begins a relationship (or the relationship one begins) for the sake of getting over a previous, recently-ended romantic relationship.
  • noun sports The strike of the ball after it has bounced off a defending player, the crossbar or goalpost.
  • noun basketball An instance of catching the ball after it has hit the rim or backboard without a basket being scored, generally credited to a particular player.
  • verb To bound or spring back from a force.
  • verb figuratively To jump up or get back up again.
  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of rebind.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb return to a former condition
  • noun the act of securing possession of the rebounding basketball after a missed shot
  • verb spring back; spring away from an impact
  • noun a movement back from an impact
  • noun a reaction to a crisis or setback or frustration

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French rebondir.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

see rebind

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Examples

Comments

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  • Used to describe a book from which the entire original binding has been removed and replaced with a newer one. Compare with rebacked.

    February 22, 2007