Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) a severe blow [it makes one ‘bound’, i.e. leap].

1810		J. Wetherell Adventures of John Wetherell (1954) 160: I gave him a bounder across the shoulders with my broom stick.
1822		Westmorland Gaz. 21 Dec. 2/3: Hudson placed an uncharitable ‘bounder’ on his adversary’s left listener.
1966		in DARE.

2. a four-wheeled cab [the ‘bounding’ motion of the cab].

1823		Morn. Post (London) 27 Mar. 3/4: There were bounders, as well as Bermondsey neats, cabbage-carts, [...] and every utensil that two or four wheels could move with .
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1865		Pall Mall Gaz. 12 Apr. 3/1: We fancy too that a cabman would object to his vehicle being described as a ‘bounder,’ a ‘drag,’ a ‘cask,’ or a ‘bird-cage’.
1870		(con. mid-19C) Encyclopædia of Rural Sports 314: ‘When I see a pair of [...] horses put to what , in the language of the road, is called ‘a bounder,’ that is, a gentleman’s carriage with three in and two out’ .

3. one who is considered socially unacceptable or ill-mannered; thus bounderish adj. [orig. university use, one who ‘bounds’ about; but note cit. 1889–90. The individual so branded may not be intrinsically ill-mannered, but has been declared so by the prevailing standards of his fellows; post-1930s use usu. ironic or historic].

1875		Examiner 18 Dec. 10/1: He was officially reported as having introduced the the mess ‘cads’ and ‘bounders’ [...] in proof of the position that they were ‘bounders’ it is alleged that they came into mess room in flannel boating-jackets.
1888		Hants Teleg. 29 Sept. 11/6: He has an idea that to call a man a ‘bally bounder’ is quite the ducal thing.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant I 170/2: Bounder (university), a student whose manners are despised by the soi-disant élite, or who is beyond the boundary of good fellowship [...] (society), a swell, a stylish fellow, but of a very vulgar type.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 8 Apr. 1/1: Charlie Lett [...] will probably resent John Burns’ reference to the ‘Colonial Bounders’.
1898		W. Pett Ridge Mord Em’ly 289: A dirty, low, sneaking, rotten bounder!
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 20 Oct. 38: Anyone could see with half an eye that he was a regular bounder.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 17 Jan. 1/1: His chief is waiting anxiously for the trouble-buying bounder to again distinguish himself.
1910		Marvel 5 Feb. 6: ‘Dashed cheek,’ said one of them irritably. ‘What a bounder!’.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 23 Jan. 2nd sect. 1/1: They Say [...] That a Bayswater bounder runs a risk of being punched on the point.
1911		Harrington & Powell [perf. Marie Lloyd] Put On Your Slippers 🎵 Now Bertie was a bounder - yes - and regular hot stuff too.
1914		Day Book (Chicago) 10 July 19/3: The average titled bounder [...] if he told the truth, would drop on his knees and cry, ‘Darling, I love you for your pelf alone’.
1919		‘Sapper’ Mufti 66: To her he was never the vain, strutting little bounder making himself ridiculous and offensive by turn.
1923		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 18 Sept. [synd. col.] Bounderish philanderers who peregrinate [...] from dance temple to cafe.
1938		D. Runyon ‘The Three Wise Guys’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 407: Only a bounder and a cad will walk away from a sick doll.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 84: I’m just a bounder.
1959		F. Norman Fings II i: Some bounder broke in last night and stole a whole lot of things.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 8: Now here the bounder was, bobbing up right in my midst.
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 31: Young Fred [...] would be called a cad and a bounder.
1986		R.G. Barrett Godson 58: ‘I kneed the bounder in the cods’.
1999		Observer Screen 20 June 10: Terry-Thomas playing upper class twit and bounder.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 88: They [i.e. rich women] love a bounder.

4. (Aus.) in attrib. use of sense 3.

1901

Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 1 May 1/6: The man Hogan was a punter, / And he tried to struggle through / For to pay them bounder bookies.

5. a person, with no derog. overtones.

1887		‘My Sally’ in Baumann (1902) cxix: My Sally’s a nippy bounder.
1890		Sporting Times 22 Mar. 1/5: I’ve ’ad to lumber the old woman’s boots to pay the ’earing fee, and the bally old bounder’s stone deaf!
1904		H. Lawson ‘The Ballad of the Elder Son’ in Roderick (1967–9) II 74: But put me on at anything, / I’ll graft with any bounder here.
1928		Capricorn (Rockhampton, Qld) 20 Dec. 19/1: Hello there, you old bounder.