bounce off

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Verb

bounce off (third-person singular simple present bounces off, present participle bouncing off, simple past and past participle bounced off)

1. (transitive, informal, idiomatic) To test (ideas) on someone.

   I have a plan to bounce off you.

   Let me bounce an idea off you.

2. (transitive) To use as a springboard for further discussion.
   • 1981 August 29, Nancy Wechsler, “Pornography and the Lawyers Guild”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 7, page 4:

     My comments about the resolutions come after Pat and Gayle have explained their objections and talked about what they think their effects will be. My remark is bouncing off of what they said, feeding it back to them in an attempt to continue the flow off the interview.

3. (intransitive) To move away with a bouncing movement.

   She bounced off out of the room.

4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bounce,‎ off.

Derived terms

• bounce off the walls

See also

• run by

References

• “bounce an idea off”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.