Bounce away/off

Question

Are both 'bounce away' and 'bounce away' alike or not?

Chowder: Three seconds on the clock. I'm playing basketball. It’s time for an in-your-face disgrace. [he throws the ball, only for it to bounce off the hoop and hit him in the face; he cries out and falls to the driveway as the ball bounce away ]

Monster House, animation

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Tara2Are both 'bounce off' and 'bounce away' alike or not?

Both contain 'bounce', so of course they are alike. However, they are not synonymous.

Tara2He throws the ball, only for it to [1) bounce off the hoop] and hit him in the face; he cries out and falls to the driveway as the ball [2) bounces away].

1. The ball strikes the hoop. This causes the ball to reverse direction. That's all that happens when the ball bounces off the hoop.
2. The ball is loose; nobody has control over it. It strikes the ground, reverses direction and goes up, comes back down, strikes the ground again, reverses direction, and so on, all the while moving farther and farther away from the players until it loses all energy and just rolls away. They will have to run after it to recover it. That's what happens when the ball bounces away.

CJ

GPY · Answer

Tara2Are both 'bounce off' and 'bounce away' alike or not?

Tara2Chowder: Three seconds on the clock. I'm playing basketball. It’s time for an in-your-face disgrace. [he throws the ball, only for it to bounce off the hoop and hit him in the face; he cries out and falls to the driveway as the ball bounces away ]

In this case "bounce off" means rebound from, i.e. hit something and reverse (or substantially change) direction, while "bounce away" means travel away from some point of reference with a bouncing motion.

As it happens, "bounce off" can sometimes also mean what "bounce away" means here. For example. You can say "I kicked the ball and it bounced off/away down the driveway". In this example "bounced off" and "bounced away" mean about the same.

(Cross-posted.)

Bounce away/off

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions