bouncer
[boun-ser]
- a person or thing that bounces.
- a person who is employed at a bar, nightclub, etc., to eject disorderly persons.
- something large of its kind.
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Origin of bouncer
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
escortdefenderwardenguardianmusclepraetorianminderbounceregotistblowhardbraggadociolookoutshepherdshieldpicketchaperonsentrywatchchaperonecustodianExamples from the Web for bouncer
Contemporary Examples
But the bouncer catches up with you a couple of blocks away and pops you.
Mark Ruffalo Blasts Iraq’s GOP Warmongers, Talks ‘Begin Again’ and ‘Avengers’Marlow Stern
June 30, 2014
He also failed a drug test and allegedly hit a bouncer so hard he punctured his eardrum.
A few minutes later, the bouncer hands me a paper hat featuring an orange T-Rex about to swallow a smaller blue dinosaur.
Some said yes—but one added, "why would you want to get arrested and be a bouncer?"
“Courtney Ames tries to be badass, she comes to court with a bouncer,” attorney Sean Erenstoft said.
Historical Examples
They had a bouncer on each of my elbows before I had moved five feet.
VigorishGordon Randall Garrett
(reads) “accompanied by Mrs. Bouncer, also of the Banbury Light Horse.”
Happy-Thought HallF. C. Burnand
Cromwell can't do Mrs. Bouncer—he has a moustache, you know.
A Pirate of PartsRichard Neville
You can have the honour of killing him yourself, with the help of Bouncer.
Snow Shoes and CanoesWilliam H. G. Kingston
How Bouncer had come to find me, or to whom the canoe belonged, no one could tell.
Snow Shoes and CanoesWilliam H. G. Kingston
bouncer
- slang a person employed at a club, pub, disco, etc, to throw out drunks or troublemakers and stop those considered undesirable from entering
- slang a dishonoured cheque
- cricket another word for bumper 1
- a person or thing that bounces
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for bouncer
n.
mid-19c. in various senses, noun derivative of bounce (v.) in its original sense of "thump, hit." Earliest attested is "boaster, bully, braggart" (1833); also "large example of its kind" (1842); "enforcer of order in a bar or saloon" (1865, American English, originally colloquial).
"The Bouncer" is merely the English "chucker out". When liberty verges on license and gaiety on wanton delirium, the Bouncer selects the gayest of the gay, and -- bounces him! ["London Daily News," July 26, 1883]
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper