All these words describe ways in which the direction of a moving object can be radically changed. Bounce , the most general term, ban be applied to virtually any missile that rebounds, such as a ball, stone, coin apple, etc.

• He didn’t see me toss him the book; it bounced off his chest and fell to the floor.

But bounce commonly emphasizes resiliency.

• The basketball bounced high in the air; My little girl loves to bounce up and down on her bed.

Cannon is a curious word, because the noun refers to a highly skilful and carefully controlled billiards shot, whereas the verb often implies lack of control and recklessness. In billiards, a cannon is a shot in which the cue ball strikes against two other balls in succession. As a verb, cannon means to hit and rebound, often in a context that implies that the rebound is uncontrolled and damaging.

• The car cannoned off the telephone pole and hurtled into a parked mail van.

Deflect means to turn aside or cause something to swerve from its course. Ricochet means to glance from a surface in the fashion of a stone thrown over the surface of water, making a series of skips or bounds. Thus ricochet in practice means to bounce away fast, with little loss of speed, whereas deflect stresses the change in direction of a moving object. Compare these two examples.

• The bullet ricocheted off the pavement and shattered the window glass; The arrow, deflected by strong winds, missed its target completely.

In some contexts ricochet and cannon are interchangeable, but cannon emphasizes collision and the force of the rebound whereas ricochet emphasizes the speed of the deflection. Bounce can substituted in most contexts for cannon and ricochet , but not for deflect ; deflect differs essentially from the other words in not involving the actions of bounding away or collision. It means what the others only imply: a change in the direction of movement of an object.