Definition

1. Noun:

   • A person who establishes an institution or organization: A founder is someone who creates or sets up something, such as a company, school, or movement.
   • A worker who makes metal castings: In manufacturing, a founder is a person who casts metal into shapes.
   • A disease in horses: Founder refers to a painful inflammation in a horse's foot, specifically the laminae connecting the hoof to the bone.

2. Verb (intransitive):

   • To fail or collapse: To founder means to break down, come to nothing, or fail completely, often after a struggle.
   • To sink or fill with water and sink: When a ship founders, it fills with water and sinks.
   • To stumble or fall down: To founder can mean to stumble, stagger, or fall, especially from exhaustion or lameness (often used for horses).

Examples

• Noun:

  • She is the founder and CEO of the tech startup.
  • The founder poured molten iron into the mold to create the engine part.
  • The horse was treated for founder after walking on hard surfaces.

• Verb:

  • The peace talks foundered due to a lack of trust between the parties.
  • The ship foundered in the storm and was lost at sea.
  • Exhausted, the hiker foundered and fell to his knees.

Advanced Usage

• "to founder on something": to fail because of a particular reason or obstacle.
  • The ambitious plan foundered on the rocks of political opposition and insufficient funding.

Variants and Related Words

• Foundress (n, archaic): A female founder.
• Founding (adj): Relating to the establishment of something.
  • He was one of the founding members of the club.
• Co-founder (n): A person who establishes an organization together with one or more other people.
  • They were co-founders of the charitable foundation.

Synonyms

• Noun (person who establishes): Creator, originator, institutor, pioneer.
• Verb (to fail): Collapse, fail, break down, flounder, miscarry.

Related Phrasal Verbs

(The verb 'founder' is not commonly used in phrasal verb constructions. Its meanings are typically expressed directly.)

Related Idioms

• "to go the way of the Titanic": This idiom implies a catastrophic failure or sinking, similar to a ship foundering.
  • Without proper investment, the project could go the way of the Titanic.

Noun

1. a worker who makes metal castings
2. a person who founds or establishes some institution
   • George Washington is the father of his country
3. inflammation of the laminated tissue that attaches the hoof to the foot of a horse

Verb

1. stumble and nearly fall
   • the horses foundered
2. break down, literally or metaphorically
   • The wall collapsed
   • The business collapsed
   • The dam broke
   • The roof collapsed
   • The wall gave in
   • The roof finally gave under the weight of the ice
3. sink below the surface
4. fail utterly; collapse
   • The project foundered