1. (Perhaps by analogy to a bouncing check) An electronic
mail message that is undeliverable and returns an error
notification (a "bounce message") to the sender is said to
"bounce".
2. To play volleyball. The now-demolished D. C. Power Lab
building used by the Stanford AI Lab in the 1970s had a
volleyball court on the front lawn. From 5 PM to 7 PM was the
scheduled maintenance time for the computer, so every
afternoon at 5 would come over the intercom the cry: "Now hear
this: bounce, bounce!", followed by Brian McCune loudly
bouncing a volleyball on the floor outside the offices of
known volleyballers.
3. To engage in sexual intercourse; probably from the
expression "bouncing the mattress", but influenced by Roo's
psychosexually loaded "Try bouncing me, Tigger!" from the
"Winnie-the-Pooh" books.
Compare boink.
4. To casually reboot a system in order to clear up a
transient problem. Reported primarily among VMS users.
5. (VM/CMS programmers) Automatic warm-start of a computer
after an error. "I logged on this morning and found it had
bounced 7 times during the night"
6. (IBM) To power cycle a peripheral in order to reset it.
