Word Confusion: Flounder versus Founder

Plural for the noun: flounders
Gerund: floundering

Third person present verb: flounders
Past tense or past participle: floundered
Present participle: floundering

Plural for the noun: founders
Gerund: foundering

Third person present verb: founders
Past tense or past participle: foundered
Present participle: foundering

• [flounders] A collective term for flatfishes other than soles
• A European, marine flatfish, Platichthys flesus, used for food
• Any of numerous similar or closely related non-European flatfishes
• Any flatfish other than soles

Verb, intransitive:
Struggle or stagger helplessly or clumsily in water or mud ²

• Struggle mentally
• Show or feel great confusion
• Be in serious difficulty

• The owner or operator of a foundry

A person who establishes an institution or settlement ²

[Zoology] An animal, especially a fertilized female insect, that founds a new colony ³

[Chiefly North American] Laminitis in horses, ponies, or other hoofed animals ⁴

Verb, intransitive:
[Nautical] Fill with water and sink ⁴

• [Of a plan or undertaking] Fail or break down, typically as a result of a particular problem or setback
• To become wrecked
• Fail utterly
• [Chiefly North American; of a person or animal] Succumb to laminitis, to stumble, break down, or go lame

To fall, give way, or sink down, as buildings, ground, etc.

[Livestock] To become ill from overeating

[Veterinary pathology; of a horse] To suffer from laminitis

Verb, transitive:
[Nautical] To cause to fill with water and sink ⁴

[Of a person or animal] To cause to break down, go lame, or suffer from laminitis

[Livestock] To disable (an animal) especially by excessive feeding

[Irish] Make (someone) very cold ⁵

They seem to have also eaten flounder, whiting, plaice, cod, and brown trout too.

The mine is designed to camouflage itself into the ocean sediments, much like a flounder or stingray does.

Verb, intransitive:
He was floundering about in the shallow offshore waters.

The couple kicked their runners off, grabbed two life-buoys, and waded in to where the mother and son were floundering in deep water.

She floundered, not knowing quite what to say.

Once in Ireland, he floundered in a confused situation, victim of Charles I’s tricky diplomacy.

Many firms are floundering in this pandemic.

She experiments, even at the risk of stumbling and floundering.

He was the founder of modern Costa Rica.

Sigmund Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis.

The founder flies of the colony originated from Gainesville.

As the founder female had been inseminated before collection, the flies used in this study can be regarded as a random sample from the wild.

Some of the losses have been associated with management errors, including not providing transition time, founder, and hauling water in fertilizer tanks.

Verb, intransitive:
Six drowned when the yacht foundered off the Florida coast.

The subject is an Afro-Brazilian sailor who saved many lives when his ship foundered along the coast of Brazil.

The talks foundered on the issue of reform.

Built on a former lake bed, the building has foundered nearly ten feet.

The project foundered because public support was lacking.

Nothing, of course, came of this, as his proposals foundered on the rock-like conservatism of his profession.

His mount foundered on the rocky path.

Only a few months later, the handsome sorrel foundered and his bid for a World Championship ended.

Don’t let Red drink too much cold water or he’ll founder.

Verb, transitive:
Rough seas had foundered the ship in mid-ocean.

That road’ll founder him, lass.

Sal, you’ll founder Blackie, if he eats all those oats.

It would founder you out there.

1. Middle English from the Old French flondre, probably of Scandinavian origin and related to the Danish flynder.
2. Late 16th century, perhaps a blend of a ship filling with water and blunder, or perhaps symbolic, fl- frequently beginning words connected with swift or sudden movement.

1. Middle English probably from the Old French fondeur, from fondre.
2. Middle English word dating back to 1275–1325, a blend of found + -er.
3. ??
4. Middle English in the sense knock to the ground from the Old French fondrer, esfondrer meaning submerge, collapse, based on the Latin fundus meaning bottom, base.
5. Mid-16th century, from 4, influenced by the obsolete found meaning to chill or numb with cold.