I. (ˈ)rē+ verb
Etymology: Middle English rebounden, from Middle French rebondir, from Old French, from re- + bondir to bound — more at bound
intransitive verb
1.
a. : to spring back on collision or impact with another body
a lattice or diffraction grating from which the electrons would rebound — Current Biography
b. : to recover from or react to a setback or frustration
rebounded less quickly from disappointment — Ellen Glasgow
was supposed to fall in love with someone else quickly … but she herself had rebounded differently — G.R.Stewart
2. : to bound back as if upon impact : leap , spring
released from the downward pull, the submerged crustal material would rebound upward — A.E.Benfield
3. : reecho
such a resounding whack that the echoes rebounded from the mountains forty miles away — Darrell Berrigan
transitive verb
1. : to cause to spring back : return
2. : to make resound : reecho
Synonyms:
reverberate , recoil , resile , repercuss : rebound indicates a resilient springing, bouncing, or hurtling back after or as if after some collision, impact, or other forcible contact
a ball rebounding from the wall
literature is rebounding again from the scientific-classical pole to the poetic-romantic one — Edmund Wilson
reverberate is used of waves or rays that bound back or are forced back, reflected, or deflected; it is most typically used of sound and suggests loud reechoing
the explosion reverberated between a series of low ridges, sounding like some giant's bowling ball — F.V.W.Mason
its acoustics are magnificent: the merest mumble reverberates like the solemn voice of judgment — Green Peyton
she presents even simple subjects with a perceptiveness that makes them reverberate in the mind — Babette Deutsch
recoil applies to a springing or flying back, commonly in consequence of a release of pressure or stretching, to or against a point of origin, or in retreat, receding, or shrinking in apprehension or revulsion
a spring recoiling to its natural position
military commentators recoiled from the spectacle as if it were two loathsome for remark — S.L.A.Marshall
resile may apply to a resilient but not abrupt drawing back to a former position
the rubber attachments resiling at the normal temperatures
apprehensive about the agreement and trying to resile to his former unattached position
repercuss , now notably less common than the noun repercussion, implies the return of something moving ahead with or as if with great force back to or toward the starting point
sickness produces an abnormally sensitive emotional state in almost everyone, and in many cases the emotional state repercusses, as it were, on the organic disease — F.W.Peabody
II. noun
1.
a. : the action of rebounding : a springing back after impact or the sudden release of pressure : recoil , resilience
the reflection of light was just a rebound of the light particles from an elastic surface — S.F.Mason
the origin of nationalism in Asia was in the nature of a rebound from the European imperialism of the last century — B.R.Sen
b. : an upward leap or movement : recovery
strength in selected issues … ushered in a sharp rebound in prices — J.G.Forrest
2. : something that is reverberated : echo
such rebounds our inward ear catches sometimes from afar — William Wordsworth
3.
a. : a basketball or hockey puck that rebounds (as from a backboard or sideboard)
grabbed the rebound and sank a basket
b. : an instance of securing possession of a rebounding basketball
leads the league in rebounds
4. : an immediate and spontaneous reaction to a setback, frustration, or intellectual or emotional crisis
is also on the rebound , not from ennui but from a dead lover — Time
caught the middle class on the rebound , and received perhaps a million votes which in subsequent elections it failed to hold — Times Literary Supplement