Use trounce for a decisive win that sounds strong, vivid, and slightly informal. It works well in sports, elections, business headlines, and contests where the loser is clearly outmatched.
Use trounce for a decisive win that sounds strong, vivid, and slightly informal. It works well in sports, elections, business headlines, and contests where the loser is clearly outmatched.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| The team trounced its rival by one point. | The team edged its rival by one point. |
| She was trounce in the final. | She was trounced in the final. |
| They trounced to the champions. | They lost heavily to the champions. |
Use trounce for severe beating or punishment only when the style can be vivid or old-fashioned. In ordinary writing, beat, punish, or criticize harshly may be clearer.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| The teacher trounced the homework gently. | The teacher criticized the homework gently. |
| He trounced at the bad review. | He was trounced by the bad review. |
| The article trounce the proposal. | The article trounced the proposal. |
Use the word for emphatic defeats and heavy criticism. It is vivid and a little punchy, so defeat, beat, or criticize may be better in neutral or formal contexts.
Trounced narrowly is contradictory because trounce implies a strong defeat. Use edged, beat narrowly, or lost by one point for close results.
The origin is uncertain. Dictionary evidence records the word by the mid-sixteenth century in senses connected with beating or punishing, and the now common sense of defeating decisively developed from that forceful idea.
What does trounce mean?
It means to defeat someone very heavily or decisively. It can also mean to beat, punish, or criticize severely.
Is trounce formal?
No. It is vivid and somewhat informal, though it appears in news writing about sports, elections, and markets.
What is the past tense of trounce?
The past tense is trounced.
Can a team be trounced?
Yes. If a team is trounced, it loses badly or by a large margin.
What are synonyms of trounce?
Synonyms include defeat, beat, thrash, rout, crush, drub, and overwhelm.
Can trounce mean criticize?
Yes, in a figurative sense. A review, article, or speaker can trounce an idea by attacking it harshly.
What is the opposite of trounce?
For the defeat sense, opposites include lose to, fall to, and succumb to.