/bau̇n(t)s/
v. 1. [perhaps from the image of a thrown ball bouncing off a wall] An electronic mail message that is undeliverable and returns an error notification to the sender is said to 'bounce'.
See also bounce message.
2. [Stanford] To play volleyball. At the now-demolished D. C. Power Lab building used by the Stanford AI Lab in the 1970s, there was a volleyball court on the front lawn. From 5 P.M. to 7 P.M. was the scheduled maintenance time for the computer, so every afternoon at 5 the computer would become unavailable, and over the intercom a voice would 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; prob. from the expression 'bouncing the mattress', but influenced by Piglet's psychosexually loaded "Bounce on me too, 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. [IBM] To power cycle a peripheral in order to reset it.