- 1
To beat someone very badly in a game, a competition or an election — not just win, but win by an distance. If you win 1-0, you won. If you win 8-0, you trounced them. The word belongs almost entirely to sports pages and political reporting: 'United trounced City 5-0', 'the party was trounced at the polls'. Journalists love it because it is short and vivid and fits a headline. In ordinary conversation people rarely say it; they say 'we destroyed them' or 'they got hammered'. Two things to notice about how it behaves. First, it needs an object — you trounce someone; you cannot just 'trounce'. Second, the loser is often the subject in the passive: 'they were trounced'. It is not really used about physical fighting or war any more; it lives in the world of scores and results, where the defeat is total but nobody is actually hurt. In much older English it could mean to beat someone with a stick, and you can still feel that older roughness underneath.
大勝、痛宰、慘電。台灣體育新聞常用的「痛宰」「血洗」「慘電」就是這個字的語感——不是普通的贏，是贏到讓對手難堪。
組成Nobody is sure where this word comes from. Dictionaries say the origin is unknown, though it may be connected to an Old French word troncer, meaning to cut a piece off something — but the meanings do not match well, so even that is only a guess. When a dictionary admits it does not know, that is worth trusting more than a tidy story.
原始詞典資料10 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
trounceverb詞源 1/tɹaʊns/
- 1
To beat severely; to thrash.
- I tell you, I meane to trounce him after twenty in the hundred, and have a bout with him with two ſtaves and a pike for this geare.
- There is a Law among them that whoſoever beats one of thoſe Clerks ſo, that his Cap fall to the ground, he is liable to a very ſevere penalty (if I well remember to looſe his hand) which nevertheleſs happens frequently in the Cabac: but to prevent the worſt when a Layman is minded to beat one of thoſe Muſhrooms, he firſt takes off his Cap and then trounces him off ſo long as he will, which done he ſets the Cap upon the right Block again.
- 2
To beat or overcome thoroughly, to defeat heavily; especially (games, sports) to win against (someone) by a wide margin.
- The German team trounced the Brazilians by 7 goals to 1.
- Mar[ina]. Crowd the Fidler is not there: / And my mind delighted is / With no ſtroke ſo much as his. / Mop[so]. If not he, / There will bee / Drone the Piper that will trounce it. / Mar. But if Crowd / Struck alowd, / Lord me thinks how I could bounce it.
- 3
To chastise or punish physically or verbally; to scold with abusive language.
- Say I, write I, or dooe I, what I can, he will haunt and trounce me perpetually, with ſpiritiſh workes of ſupererogation, inceſſant tormentours of the civilian and devine.
- Though the senators are eminently courteous to each other, they have no more hesitation in speaking out their minds, upon occasion, than have the members of the House [of Representatives]. John P[arker] Hale, with [William Henry] Seward on his side, unmercifully trounces President [Franklin] Pierce and the slaveholders; and General [Lewis] Cass, helped out by Mr. [John Middleton] Clayton, most valiantly abuses England and Lord Palmerston.
- 4
regionalTo punish by bringing a lawsuit against; to sue.
- Slept hard till 8 o'clock, then waked by Mr. Clerke's being come to consult me about Field's business, which we did by calling him up to my bedside, and he says we shall trounce him.
- Whereupon Mr. Weaver did threaten them, and (to uſe his own Expreſſion) would cauſe them to be trounced, taking down their Names. And the Grand Jury broke up without acting.
trouncenoun詞源 1/tɹaʊns/
- 1
An act of trouncing: a severe beating, a thrashing; a thorough defeat.
- He sprang on his prey with a pounce, / And he gave it a jerk and a trounce; / Then crunched up its bones / On the grass or the stones, / This carnivoristicous Ounce, / 'Ticous Ounce! / This carnivoristicous Ounce!
- She could hear the maid beating the pillows—a trounce for each—and tossing them into a pile where they fell with a plump.
trounceverb詞源 2/tɹaʊns/
- 1
dialectalTo walk heavily or with some difficulty; to tramp, to trudge.
- There were no railways then—well, not in Hazelworth, at any rate—and as coach-fares would have absorbed most of our stock of "Sunday pennies," we had to "trounce" every inch of our way to Manchester.
- I am what a Yorkshireman would call a 'Lanky,' and perhaps as poor a specimen of the cotton county's human produce as ever trounced barefoot through its lanes, or shuddered at the sound of its factory bells.
- 2
dialectalTo pass across or over; to traverse.
- "And at school everyone knows I'm Dana Winslow's younger sister. Mr. Johnson, the science teacher, even calls me Dana sometimes." / Dana looked up then. "Do you answer him?" / "I have to. If I don't he thinks I'm not participating." Aly got up and trounced over to the bookcase.
- 3
dialectalTo travel quickly over a long distance.
- Lyra trounces into the kitchen, a smile on her face. "Good morning, everyone! Morning, Grandpa. Morning, Gramps."
- Don't thank us, then, she snaps, and trounces off down the road.
trouncenoun詞源 2/tɹaʊns/
- 1
dialectalA walk involving some difficulty or effort; a trek, a tramp, a trudge.
- An' what a trounce it's bin! I declare to goodness I'm as out o' wynt as an owd pair o' ballis, wi' walkin so far.
- 2
dialectalA journey involving quick travel; also, one that is dangerous or laborious.
- Sec a trounce we've hed ower t' fells!
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。