bounce off the walls
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To have excess energy and be very restless
Literally: to rebound off vertical surfaces
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Crazy Ibrahim bouncing off the walls, appearing at the Lebanese Embassy, and you apparently don't give a damn.
The Israelite army greets it with the same great shout as bounced off the walls of Jericho and heralded their demolition.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
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Common questions
What does “bounce off the walls” mean?
To have excess energy and be very restless Literally: to rebound off vertical surfaces
Is “bounce off the walls” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.
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