founder
1 Americannoun
verb (used without object)
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(of a ship, boat, etc.) to fill with water and sink.
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to fall or sink down, as buildings, ground, etc..
Built on a former lake bed, the building has foundered nearly ten feet.
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to become wrecked; fail utterly.
The project foundered because public support was lacking.
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to stumble, break down, or go lame, as a horse.
His mount foundered on the rocky path.
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to become ill from overeating.
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Veterinary Pathology. (of a horse) to suffer from laminitis.
verb (used with object)
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to cause to fill with water and sink.
Rough seas had foundered the ship in mid-ocean.
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Veterinary Pathology. to cause (a horse) to break down, go lame, or suffer from laminitis.
noun
noun
verb
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(of a ship) to sink
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to break down or fail
the project foundered
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to sink into or become stuck in soft ground
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to fall in or give way; collapse
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(of a horse) to stumble or go lame
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archaic (of animals, esp livestock) to become ill from overeating
noun
noun
noun
Usage
Founder is sometimes wrongly used where flounder is meant: this unexpected turn of events left him floundering (not foundering )
Other Word Forms
- unfoundered adjective
- unfoundering adjective
Etymology
Origin of founder1
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English found(o)ur, foundere, fundre “original builder of a city, church, castle, or city; founder of a country,” from Anglo-French fundur, from Old French fondeor, from Latin fundātōr-, stem of fundātor; found 1; -er 1 ( def. )
Origin of founder2
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English foundren, funder, fonder, from Old French fondrer “to plunge to the bottom, submerge,” from Vulgar Latin fundorāre (unattested), derivative of fundor-, an s -stem noun interpreted as stem of Latin fundus, actually an o -stem noun (stem fund- ) “bottom”
Origin of founder3
First recorded in 1400–50; Middle English foundour, founder, from Old French fondeur, from fondre “to melt, cast”; found 3, -er 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Bill Ackman, founder of the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, said on the social-media website X on Sunday that “some of the highest quality businesses in the world are trading at extremely cheap prices.”
From Barron's
Ambrosia broke up in 1982 but reunited in 1989; Pack later left, though the band’s other three founders continued to perform.
From Los Angeles Times
He was previously founder and Head of Silicon for the Google Technical Infrastructure and Google Cloud businesses.
The supermarket fixture known for its red-capped spices traces its roots to founder Willoughby McCormick, who at 25 years old started selling root beer, flavoring extracts, and fruit syrups door-to-door.
Chemaf’s founder, Shiraz Virji, son of a Zanzibar spice merchant, once hired dozens of Gurkhas, Nepalese soldiers with a reputation for fierceness, to guard one of the company’s mines against incursions by informal miners.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
