rebound
Americanverb (used without object)
-
rebounds,
present (3rd person singular)
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rebounded,
past participle, past
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rebounding
present participle
-
to bound or spring back from force of impact.
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to recover, as from ill health or discouragement.
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Basketball. to gain hold of rebounds.
a forward who rebounds well off the offensive board.
verb (used with object)
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rebounds,
present (3rd person singular)
-
rebounded,
past participle, past
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rebounding
present participle
-
to cause to bound back; cast back.
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Basketball. to gain hold of (a rebound).
The guard rebounded the ball in backcourt.
noun
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rebounds
plural
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the act of rebounding; recoil.
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Basketball.
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a ball that bounces off the backboard or the rim of the basket.
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an instance of gaining hold of such a ball.
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Ice Hockey. a puck that bounces off the gear or person of a goalkeeper attempting to make a save.
idioms
verb
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to spring back, as from a sudden impact
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to misfire, esp so as to hurt the perpetrator
the plan rebounded
noun
-
the act or an instance of rebounding
-
-
in the act of springing back
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informal in a state of recovering from rejection, disappointment, etc
he married her on the rebound from an unhappy love affair
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Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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reboundsimple
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reboundssimple
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have reboundedperfect
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has reboundedperfect
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am reboundingprogressive
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are reboundingprogressive
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is reboundingprogressive
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have been reboundingperfect progressive
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has been reboundingperfect progressive
Past
-
reboundedsimple
-
had reboundedperfect
-
was reboundingprogressive
-
were reboundingprogressive
-
had been reboundingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of rebound
1300–50; Middle English (v.) < Middle French rebondir, equivalent to Old French re- re- + bondir to bound 2
Explanation
To rebound is to come back from a slump. You might rebound from an illness, or your country might rebound from an economic recession. Like many words that start with the prefix re, rebound involves something happening again. In this case, to rebound is to bounce back to a previous state or condition. When you start to feel happy again after your heart gets broken, you rebound. If the stock market crashes and then returns to a healthy level, it rebounds.
Vocabulary lists containing rebound
Defense, Dribble, and Dunk: Basketball Lingo
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Power Prefix: re-
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This Feb. 29: 15 Words for "Leap"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
President Hakainde Hichilema is seeking a second term after steering Zambia through an economic rebound.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
Park plans to hold on to his SK Hynix shares in hopes of a rebound, although recent swings have made him hesitant to invest more.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
They expect Samsung’s shares, which recently fell 49% from their recent peak, to regain ground, noting that historically, declines of more than 40% have marked the start of a mid- to long-term rebound.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Wayfair CFO Kate Gulliver on signs of a rebound in the U.S.;
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
Ten minutes before practice was supposed to end, Guzzo and Tooms went up for a rebound, and Tooms knocked Guzzo in the face with his elbow.
From "All American Boys" by Jason Reynolds
Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, seems wary of such knee-jerk rebounds, and argues that a shift in attitudes toward option trading may help explain them.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026
To determine whether body fat truly rebounds, Agbaje examined a measurement that more closely reflects adiposity than BMI.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 31, 2026
Reese had 22 points and 12 rebounds in her team’s 82-81 victory against the Dream.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
James averaged 20.9 points, 7.2 assists, 6.1 rebounds and 1.2 steals a game for the Lakers last season and said he was considering retirement strongly when the campaign concluded.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
Erin hits shot after shot, pulls rebounds, get steals, and carries her team to a twenty-point lead by halftime.
From "Boy21" by Matthew Quick
For much of July, improved optimism for a peace deal pulled down gasoline prices, although they have rebounded more recently.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
“Although this signals that the U.S. has rebounded from the devastating losses that occurred during the pandemic, returning to 2019 conditions hardly puts us out of the woods.”
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026
—Oil prices rebounded after Monday’s selloff, with Brent crude up 1.3% to $84.82 a barrel and WTI up 0.6% to $80.78 a barrel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
The timing matters because investors are weighing whether to trim stock exposure after the S&P 500 rebounded from its recent pullback and climbed back to a record closing high on Tuesday.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026
Of course, Rowdy got hot, hit fifteen or twenty in a row, and I rebounded and kept passing the ball to him.
From "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie
After years of decline, new announced fossil fuel capacity for the grid hit a low in 2022, rebounding the following year as the AI boom took hold.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
SpaceX shares rose 16% Friday, rebounding from a post-earnings selloff, as retail investors piled in even as a lockup expiration arrived that had some analysts concerned about insider selling.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Hamby has led the Sparks in scoring four times and led or tied for rebounding 16 times this season after signing a three-year, $3.5-million contract.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
Shares of Micron Technology and other chip names were on the rise Monday morning, rebounding after a tough stretch last week.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 6, 2026
The pod flew out from under Ron’s fingers and hit the greenhouse glass, rebounding onto the back of Professor Sprout’s head and knocking off her old, patched hat.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
