Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to put oneself in debt, e.g. making a bet or ordering a drink, knowing that one has no funds.

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.

2. (Aus.) to lose money.

1906

E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 219: Fifteen jim, ther savin’s iv er lifetime, which [...] ’e’s bounced down at ther two-up.

3. to pass a cheque, knowing that one has insufficient funds in one’s bank account [SE since 1960s] .

1927		New Republic 26 Jan. 277/2: ‘Bouncer,’ for instance, may be either (1) a rubber check, returned by the bank as no good, or (2) the person who passes (bounces) the rubber check [DA].
1949		R. Chandler Little Sister 62: He don’t have the [...] personality to bounce cheques.
1968		W.S. Hoffman Loser 11: ‘Three weeks before I had written the first check to bet the horses. I'd bounced more than thirty others since’.

4. of a cheque, to be refused by a bank, which marks it ‘return to drawer’; also to refuse a cheque; thus bounced cheque n. [SE since 1960s].

1938		W. Winchell On Broadway 2 Mar. [synd. col.] The pay check she got bounced.
1949		A.I. Bezzerides Thieves’ Market 183: I promise you it won’t bounce.
1956		‘Toney Betts’ Across the Board 126: Burke looked at Karty’s cheque, smiled and said calmly: ‘If this one bounces you’re in bondage for life.’.
1958		E. Dundy Dud Avocado (1960) 123: Some silly political scandal, bounced cheques, and all that sort of thing.
1963		H.S. Thompson letter 20 Aug. in Proud Highway (1997) 388: My cheques are bouncing again, but that’s nothing new.
1967		R. Conot Rivers of Blood 80: If, when the canceled check is returned, the signature does not match that of the recipient, there is no proof that the check ever reached the recipient, and the state bounces it.
1971		M. Novotny Kings Road 78: The walls of his bar are covered with bounced cheques.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 272: I bounced Johnson’s cheque.