flounce

verb

1. To move in a bouncy, exaggerated manner.

   “There was a continual coming and going of flouncing, pig-tailed forms, until the table was closely covered with dishes, scarlet curries with surface currents of ochreous oil, three varieties of what looked like seaweed (inevitably recommended as abundant in vitamins), a paste made of ground beans and chillis...”

2. To depart in a dramatic, haughty way that draws attention to oneself.

   “After failing to win the leadership election, he flounced dramatically.”

   “'Oh certainly,' retorted Tinette impudently, as she flounced out of the room.”

   “You got your ass kicked and instead of admitting you might have made a mistake, you flounced.”

   “But love Mensch or hate her, don't buy the line that she merely got bored and flounced: for whatever else she achieved in politics, she was never exactly stuck for ways to make it interesting.”

   “In 1946, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) was established to regulate whale stocks and “make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry”. It attempted to impose quotas and move the industry toward something more sustainable. This proved difficult, so the IWC simply gave up and imposed a moratorium on whaling altogether. Some countries flounced out in a huff; others had never joined in the first place.”

3. (archaic)To flounder; to make spastic motions.

   “To flutter and flounce will do nothing but batter and bruise us.”

   “With his broad fins and forky tail he laves / The rising surge, and flounces in the waves.”

4. To decorate with a flounce.

noun

1. A strip of decorative material, usually pleated, attached along one edge; a ruffle.

   “Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […] Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas.”

2. The act of flouncing; a dramatic departure.

   “Emma Watson’s approach is in stark contrast to that of Daniel Day-Lewis; a man who, despite being the greatest actor on earth, is somewhat prone to a flounce. […] Day-Lewis announced that he had retired from acting, putting out a statement that read: “Daniel Day-Lewis will no longer be working as an actor.””

3. A row of corrugations, skin folds, or spines, on the hemipenis of a snake.