flounce

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aʊns

Verb

flounce (third-person singular simple present flounces, present participle flouncing, simple past and past participle flounced)

1. To move in an exaggerated, bouncy manner.
2. (archaic) To flounder; to make spastic motions.
   • Barrow

     To flutter and flounce will do nothing but batter and bruise us.

   • Addison

     With his broad fins and forky tail he laves / The rising surge, and flounces in the waves.

3. To decorate with a flounce.
4. To leave a group dramatically, in a way that draws attention to oneself.

   After failing to win the leadership election, he flounced dramatically.

   • 2002 September 9, PButler111, “Re: OT - Sept. 11th?”, alt.fan.barry-manilow, Usenet:

     You got your ass kicked and instead of admitting you might have made a mistake, you flounced.

   • 2012 August 7, Gaby Hinsliff, “The lessons of Louise Mensch's departure? There are none”, The Guardian:

     But love Mensch or hate her, don't buy the line that she merely got bored and flounced: for whatever else she achieved in politics, she was never exactly stuck for ways to make it interesting.

Translations

to move in exaggerated manner

• Bulgarian: хвърлям се (bg) (hvǎrljam se), втурвам се (bg) (vturvam se)
• Finnish: harppoa (fi)

to make spastic motions — see flounder

to decorate with flounce

• Bulgarian: украсявам с волани (bg) (ukrasjavam s volani)
• Finnish: koristella röyhelöin (fi), röyhelöidä (fi)

Noun

flounce (plural flounces)

1. (sewing) A strip of decorative material, usually pleated, attached along one edge; a ruffle.
2. The act of flouncing.

Derived terms

• flouncy

Translations

strip of decorative material along an edge

• Bulgarian: волан (bg) (volan) m
• Finnish: röyhelö (fi) (pleated), reunus (fi) (any)

act of flouncing

• Finnish: harppominen (fi) (going); röyhelöinti (fi) (decorating)