Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To move in a lively or bouncy manner.
  • intransitive verb To move with exaggerated or affected motions.
  • intransitive verb To move clumsily; flounder.
  • noun The act or motion of flouncing.
  • noun A strip of decorative, usually gathered or pleated material attached by one edge, as on a garment or curtain.
  • transitive verb To trim with a strip or strips of gathered or pleated material.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make abrupt or agitated movements with the limbs and body; turn or twist as with sudden petulance or impatience; move with flings or turns, as if in displeasure or annoyance: as, to flounce out of a room.
  • To deck with flounces: as, to flounce a petticoat or a gown.
  • To surround with something arranged like a flounce.
  • noun In saddlery, a covering for a pistol-holster, either of leather or bearskin.
  • noun A sudden fling or turn, as of the body.
  • noun A deep ruffle; a strip of any material used to decorate a garment, especially a skirt near the bottom, gathered or plaited at one edge, and loose and floating at the other, the gathered edge being sewed to the garment.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To deck with a flounce or flounces.
  • noun The act of floucing; a sudden, jerking motion of the body.
  • noun An ornamental appendage to the skirt of a woman's dress, consisting of a strip gathered and sewed on by its upper edge around the skirt, and left hanging.
  • intransitive verb To throw the limbs and body one way and the other; to spring, turn, or twist with sudden effort or violence; to struggle, as a horse in mire; to flounder; to throw one's self with a jerk or spasm, often as in displeasure.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To move in an exaggerated, bouncy manner.
  • verb archaic : To flounder; to make spastic motions.
  • verb To decorate with a flounce.
  • verb To leave a group dramatically, in a way that draws attention to oneself.
  • noun sewing A strip of decorative material, usually pleated, attached along one edge; a ruffle.
  • noun The act of flouncing.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the act of walking with exaggerated jerky motions
  • noun a strip of pleated material used as a decoration or a trim
  • verb walk emphatically

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Possibly of Scandinavian origin.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of frounce, from Middle English, pleat, from Old French fronce, of Germanic origin; see sker- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • The comment by conservatism is my antidrug @ 111 is what is called a flounce, the troll is begging to have this sock-puppet banned.

    Think Progress » The Party of Lincoln falls short on civil rights. 2010

  • In another town the awning from a shop window must not exceed a certain length, and you are told of a poor widow, who, having just had a new one put up at great expense, was compelled by the police to take the whole thing down, because the flounce was a quarter of an inch longer than the regulations prescribed.

    Home Life in Germany Alfred Sidgwick 1894

  • The muslin gowns had been very successful; the skirts fell in a straight line from the waistband high under their arms to their feet, one with a little edge of fine white embroidery, the other with a frill scarcely to be called a flounce round the foot.

    Kirsteen: The Story of a Scotch Family Seventy Years Ago Margaret 1891

  • What you all made fun of as a "flounce" out of the conversation I saw as frustration at being treated like a piece of dirt.

    Making Light: The "agency model" as I understand it 2010

  • She flounced -- 'flounce' was the only appropriate word!

    The Beetle Richard Marsh

  • A market-woman with her jolly brown face and laughing brown eyes — eyes all the softer for a touch of antimony — her ample form clothed in a lively print overall, made with a yoke at the shoulders, and a full long flounce which is gathered on to the yoke under the arms and falls fully to the feet; with her head done up in a yellow or red handkerchief, and her snowy white teeth gleaming through her vast smiles, is a mighty pleasant thing to see, and to talk to.

    Travels in West Africa 2003

  • A market-woman with her jolly brown face and laughing brown eyes -- eyes all the softer for a touch of antimony -- her ample form clothed in a lively print overall, made with a yoke at the shoulders, and a full long flounce which is gathered on to the yoke under the arms and falls fully to the feet; with her head done up in a yellow or red handkerchief, and her snowy white teeth gleaming through her vast smiles, is a mighty pleasant thing to see, and to talk to.

    Travels in West Africa Mary H. Kingsley 1881

  • And the ease of self-publishing is fueling this; it's fueling the rage at the so-called "gatekeepers" and allowing authors to vent without fear of reprisal because they're just going to flounce off and publish their books by themselves.

    Melanie Benjamin: Stop the Insanity and Just Write, Already Melanie Benjamin 2010

  • And the ease of self-publishing is fueling this; it's fueling the rage at the so-called "gatekeepers" and allowing authors to vent without fear of reprisal because they're just going to flounce off and publish their books by themselves.

    Melanie Benjamin: Stop the Insanity and Just Write, Already Melanie Benjamin 2010

  • And the ease of self-publishing is fueling this; it's fueling the rage at the so-called "gatekeepers" and allowing authors to vent without fear of reprisal because they're just going to flounce off and publish their books by themselves.

    Melanie Benjamin: Stop the Insanity and Just Write, Already Melanie Benjamin 2010

Comments

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  • "When you took your seat with womanish care, lifting your billowy flounces, on the smoothworn throne." Joyce, Ulysses, 15

    January 1, 2008

  • If a woman can flounce, I think she's got me.

    October 24, 2008

  • You mean walk with exaggerated jerky motions? (See WeirdNet #3.)

    October 24, 2008

  • Silly walks!

    October 24, 2008

  • "6. In saddlery, a covering for a pistol-holster, either of leather or bearskin."

    --Century Dictionary

    March 10, 2011