Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. big, lusty, energetic.

1519		J. Rastell The Four Elements line 640: Than we wyll haue lytell nell / A p[ro]per wenche she daunsith well / And Iane with the blacke lace / We wyll haue bounsynge besse also.
c.1550		C. Bansley Pryde and Abuse of Women line 45: Sponge up youre vysage, olde bounsynge trotte, And trick it with the beste, Tyll you tricke and trotte youre selfe To the devyls trounsynge neste.
1562		Jacke Juggler Bii: That most honest Gentleman [...] made you a bankey [banquet], and bouncing cheare.
1570		T. Broke A slaunderous libell n.p.: Such wouldst thou seme in power plast, / a bounsing boye of Hidra hatcht.
1589		R. Robinson Golden Mirrour H: She is a bouncing wench.
1594		Merry Knack to Know a Knave A4: Wil the whipper of the dogs had got a bounsing trug.
1611		Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girle III iii: The duck that sits is the bouncing ramp, that roaring girl, my mistress.
1630		T. Randolph Muses’ Looking Glass IV iii: Then there is jumping Jude, Heroique Doll, With bouncing Nan, and Cit your worship’s sinner.
1640		H. Glapthorne Wit in a Constable III i: If I were cloath’d But in the habit, should I not appeare A bouncing Mary Ambree.
1640		R. Brathwaite Ar’t Asleepe, Husband? 60: [T]hat fat Farrier and his bounsing Hussy; who meeting in a Forrest, and both addressed for pleasure.
c.1655		‘The Merry Mans Resolution’ in Ebsworth Bagford Ballads (1880) 485: Farewel to the Bank-side, farewel to Blackmans-street, / Where with my bouncing lasses I oftentimes did meet.
1661		Wandring Whore V 7: A bouncing Girl, who was courted by a neighbor whom she did not fancy.
a.1674		‘Canting Song’ Head Canting Academy (1674) 24: This bouncing Trull can finely talk, / She will do for a penny.
1681		‘The Ladies’ March’ in Wilson Court Satires of the Restoration (1976) 58: A bouncing dame appears and laughs.
1694		French Rogue 80: [I] resolved to see what I could do with our bouncing Female.
1700		N. Ward ‘A Step to Stir-Bitch-Fair’ Writings (1704) 257: Our Bouncing Maiden-Landlady [...] oblig’d us with her Company.

2. boastful, arrogant, scolding [bounce v.¹ (3)].

1705–07		N. Ward Hudibras Redivivus II:2 3: The bouncing Quack’s alluring Babble / Prevailing with the list’ning Rabble.
1773		O. Goldsmith She Stoops to Conquer Act III: I never saw such a bouncing, swaggering puppy since I was born.
1821		W. Combe Doctor Syntax, Wife (1868) 266/2: There’s Billy Humble, will not own / That he detests his bouncing Joan.
1830		Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 149: And if bouncing Bob had kept his word, ‘not to die like a horse, with his shoes on’?
1836		‘You Knows Vot’ in New Cockalorum Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) II 13: You’ll take me Poll for your flash man, / And turn up bouncing Joe.
1849		Sam Sly 24 Mar. 2/3: G. H. H—y, the bouncing printer, of the New-road, not to live with so many women.