bounce back and forth

bounce (something) back and forth

1. Literally, for two or more people to bounce something, typically a ball, between them. It's nice to see the kids out in the back yard bouncing a ball back and forth.
2. To discuss something. I bounced the idea of becoming an actress back and forth with many people before discussing it with my parents.
3. To consider or change between several options. In this usage, a noun or pronoun is not usually used between "bounce" and "back and forth." No, I haven't settled on a college yet—I'm still bouncing back and forth between a few options.
See also: and, back, bounce, forth
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

bounce something back and forth

 
1. Lit. to bat, toss, or throw something alternately between two people. (Usually a ball.) The two guys bounced the ball back and forth. John and Timmy bounced it back and forth.
2. Fig. to discuss an idea back and forth among a group of people. Let's bounce these ideas back and forth awhile and see what we come up with. The idea was bounced back and forth for about an hour.
See also: and, back, bounce, forth
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • bounce (something) back and forth
  • have a ball
  • put some reverse English on it
  • in play
  • in/out of play
  • advance the ball
  • v-ball
  • kick (something) into touch
  • kick something into touch
  • be no ball of fire
References in periodicals archive
There are too many happy coincidences that are not well set up, and the early sections bounce back and forth between the two stories too frequently.
The Singing Fire
The spring-loaded targets bounce back and forth on impact.
Expanded Ground Strike line: Birchwood Casey
Now, Haroche and his colleagues have shown how to count photons nondestructively while they bounce back and forth between two mirrors.
Crueltyfree: counting photons without killing them
As the waves bounce back and forth through the upper sand layer, waves of a certain frequency (number of vibrations per second) become amplified, or louder, explains Hunt.
Dune tunes
Yet each system affects the design of the other, which means vehicle prototypes bounce back and forth as we try to fix the problems caused by changes the other guy made in his system.
INHALE, EXHALE
Bundles of sensors placed on each canal door emit signal alerts that bounce back and forth between them.
One Small Step for Man-atee Kind
Finally, in cyberspace we don't just have text, we have hypertext, and readers can bounce back and forth between biblical texts, commentaries, and ancient maps, accessing an encyclopedia of resources at the touch of a keypad.
Catholic.com: surfing for salvation
At each end of the stack, partially reflective crystal surfaces cause many of those photons to bounce back and forth. The rebounding photons boost the odds that other electrons in the quantum wells also will convert their energy into photons rather than heat, Gmachl notes.
Unusual laser emits a band of light. (Beam Team)
Once released, light photons bounce back and forth between the laser tube's two mirrors (see diagram, upper left).
Laser Dazzle
In fact, babies forced to bounce back and forth between the sensory overload of the waking world and the sensory barrenness of dark, quiet bedrooms may often find it difficult to relax, fall asleep, wake up, or concentrate, she theorizes.
Slumber's Unexplored Landscape
These ions bounce back and forth in the tangled field, accelerating to energies high enough to emit X rays, Petre and Lisse suggest.
Bright comet poses puzzles: Hyakutake's tails of mystery
The photons emitted by excited atoms bounce back and forth between two mirrors, inducing additional atoms to emit light of the same wavelength.
Microlight: lasing with single atoms
When surface electrons get stuck on a terrace, they bounce back and forth between the edges in a standing wave; these electrons can still travel parallel to the edges, however.
Seeing quantum leaps at room temperature