Other forms: pounced, pouncing, pounces
To pounce is to spring suddenly on something. The cat pounced, pounce on a mistake, ready to pounce.
The suddenness after stillness is the whole picture: a pounce is preceded by waiting. Figuratively, to pounce on a mistake is to seize on it at once and usually gleefully, which is what critics and opponents do. Note that pounce as a noun once meant a bird of prey's claw, which is where the verb comes from — the claw named the action.
1verbpounceTo spring suddenly on something.
“The cat crouched in the grass and then pounced on the mouse.”
2verbseizeTo seize on a mistake at once.
“The opposition pounced on the minister's mistake as soon as he sat down.”
pounce is a sudden spring.
The noun pounce meant a hawk's claw, from Old French ponce. The verb came from the claw, so to pounce is to use the talon.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)poH(y)-
Latin
pūmex
French
ponce
English, today
pounce
From French ponce, from Latin pūmex. a doublet of pumice.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA