Definition

1. Verb:

   • To move or walk in an exaggerated, impatient, or agitated manner, often with jerky or emphatic motions that express annoyance or impatience.
   • To trim or adorn a garment with a gathered or pleated strip of fabric.

2. Noun:

   • An exaggerated, jerky, or emphatic movement, especially in walking.
   • A strip of fabric, often gathered or pleated, sewn onto a garment as a decorative trim.

Usage

• Verb (Movement):
  • Use "flounce" to describe a person, especially a child or someone in a temper, walking away with a show of petulance or anger.
  • It is an intransitive verb in this sense (e.g., She flounced out of the room).
• Verb (Decoration):
  • Use "flounce" as a transitive verb to describe the action of attaching a decorative fabric strip to clothing (e.g., The dress was flounced with lace).
• Noun (Movement):
  • Use "flounce" to name the act itself (e.g., She left with an angry flounce).
• Noun (Decoration):
  • Use "flounce" to refer to the decorative fabric strip (e.g., The skirt had a flounce at the hem).

Examples

• Verb (Movement):
  • After the argument, she turned and flounced out, slamming the door behind her.
  • The toddler flounced over to the corner and sat down with a pout.
• Verb (Decoration):
  • The designer flounced the sleeves with a delicate silk ruffle.
• Noun (Movement):
  • With a final, indignant flounce of her skirt, she was gone.
  • His exit was more of a flounce than a walk.
• Noun (Decoration):
  • The wedding dress featured an elegant flounce along the neckline.
  • She added a lace flounce to the bottom of the curtain.

Advanced Usage

• "to flounce in/out/off/away": These phrasal constructions are common and emphasize the direction of the agitated movement.
  • He flounced off in a huff when he didn't get his way.
• The word often carries a connotation of childishness, drama, or affected emotion.

Variants and Related Words

• Flouncy (adjective): Describing something adorned with flounces or having a full, bouncy shape.
  • She wore a flouncy summer dress.
• Ruffle (noun/verb): A close synonym for the decorative meaning; a strip of fabric gathered or pleated on one edge. Can also mean to irritate or discompose.

Synonyms

• Verb (Movement): Storm, strut, sweep, sashay (though often implies a confident, swaying walk, while implies annoyance).
• Noun (Decoration): Ruffle, frill, furbelow.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Flounce out: To leave a place in a conspicuously angry or dramatic way.
  • She flounced out of the meeting after her idea was rejected.
• Flounce off: Similar to "flounce out," often used without a specified location.
  • Don't just flounce off; let's talk about this.

Related Idioms

• While there are no common idioms centered solely on "flounce," the action is often described in phrases like "in a flounce" or "with a flounce," which idiomatically mean "in an agitated, dramatic manner."
  • She did everything with a flounce that week, making her feelings perfectly clear.

Noun

1. the act of walking with exaggerated jerky motions
2. a strip of pleated material used as a decoration or a trim

Verb

1. walk emphatically