pounce

«pounce» in Mova's school dictionary: To jump suddenly onto something to catch it, like a cat… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (pounce, pounces, pounced, pouncing); noun (a pounce, pounces)

meaning for a pupil

1) To jump suddenly onto something to catch it, like a cat catching a mouse. tree →

2) To quickly attack or criticise a mistake or chance: «She pounced on the chance to go». tree →

3) (noun) A sudden jump to catch something. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science: predators like cats, foxes and lions pounce on prey after stalking it. In stories it tells the reader an attack was sudden and fast. Phrases: «pounce on/upon», «ready to pounce», «pounce on a mistake».

examples

• The cat pounced on the toy mouse. tree →
• The lion crouched, ready to pounce. tree →
• The fox pounced on a vole in the snow. tree →
• She pounced on the chance to be in the play. tree →
• The teacher pounced on my spelling mistake. tree →
• With one pounce, the kitten caught the ribbon. tree →
• In a jiffy he pounced upon it. tree →

note

Verb: pounced, pouncing (drop e). Usually with «on» or «upon». Do not confuse with «bounce» (to spring back) or «pounds».

In the corpora

• Jumping spiders have two huge front eyes that see sharply and in colour, and they stalk and pounce instead of using webs.
• Cats are ambush hunters, and even well-fed pet cats still hunt because the urge to chase and pounce is built in.
• Real cats hunt mice by waiting quietly and pouncing, and many well-fed pet cats are not very interested in hunting.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «pounce» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.