rebound
Americanverb (used without object)
-
rebounds,
present (3rd person singular)
-
rebounded,
past participle, past
-
rebounding
present participle
-
to bound or spring back from force of impact.
-
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)
-
rebounds,
present (3rd person singular)
-
rebounded,
past participle, past
-
rebounding
present participle
-
to cause to bound back; cast back.
-
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.
-
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.
-
-
Ice Hockey. a puck that bounces off the gear or person of a goalkeeper attempting to make a save.
idioms
verb
-
to spring back, as from a sudden impact
-
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
-
has reboundedperfect
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am reboundingprogressive
-
are reboundingprogressive
-
is reboundingprogressive
-
have been reboundingperfect progressive
-
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:
Huang pushed back on financial concerns around U.S. cloud provider CoreWeave, causing its stock to rebound.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Despite the rebound, investors are likely to keep a close eye on CoreWeave’s financing costs, said Tiger Brokers’ James Ooi.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Investors appeared to be shaking off the latest “tech wreck” on Thursday, as many hard-hit names linked to the artificial-intelligence trade staged a strong rebound intraday.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 15, 2026
Why JPMorgan says the AI trade is not set up for a rebound like July’s.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 15, 2026
To the extent that major changes are achieved without a complete shift, the system will rebound.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
They powered market rebounds, rushing in to buy the dip when share prices swooned.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026
Reaves had eight points on two-for-seven shooting, eight assists and five rebounds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
IBM stock rebounds from a five-day slump after Accenture’s solid earnings signal resilience in tech consulting amid AI disruption fears.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
“Structural issues remain, but if there is any sort of resolution in the Middle East it’s also the group that likely rebounds the hardest,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026
That let them collapse under the basket and box out for the rebounds.
From "Slam!" by Walter Dean Myers
Tech-heavy markets rebounded in Asia, with South Korea’s Kospi rising 3.6% after falling 7.6% and triggering a temporary trading halt in the previous session.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Earlier in the tour, Breetzke made a century in the first one-day international but drew the ire of the Australians when he pinched a single after a throw rebounded off his body.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
ER visits by immigrant patients eventually rebounded somewhat, but remained 10% lower than pre-enforcement levels in October 2025.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026
That said, only seven teams in the Super Bowl era have rebounded from an 0-3 start to make the playoffs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
At this came the second blast, louder even than the first, a brisk, sharp blow that rebounded across the whole architecture of the sky, as if the earth itself convulsed.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
This season, the Dream led the league in opponent turnover percentage and defensive rebounding rate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Mattel shares had fallen more than 35% this year on concerns about how it planned to drive growth, before rebounding more than 30% recently amid reports of a potential takeover bid.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
Shares of Western Digital and Seagate Technology were rebounding Monday as analysts assessed the true risk of overseas competition in the market for hard disk drives.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026
Yet rebounding interest in low-rise jeans and other looks from the decade has given the iconic brand a new life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026
As soon as we are through the turnstiles, my heart lifts at the sound I was hoping to hear—jazzy notes, rebounding off the mosaic station walls.
From "Muffled" by Jennifer Gennari
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
