flounder

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈflaʊndɚ/

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• Rhymes: -aʊndə(ɹ)

From Middle English flowndre, from Anglo-Norman floundre, from Old Northern French flondre, from Old Norse flyðra,[1][2] from Proto-Germanic *flunþrijǭ. Cognate with Danish flynder, German Flunder, Swedish flundra.

flounder (plural flounder or flounders)

1. A European species of flatfish having dull brown colouring with reddish-brown blotches; fluke, European flounder (Platichthys flesus).
2. (Canada, US) Any of various flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae or Bothidae.
3. A bootmaker's tool for crimping boot fronts.

• The marked plural flounders is reserved for multiple species of flounder; the unmarked plural flounder is used otherwise.

Possibly from the noun. Probably a blend of flounce +‎ founder[3] or a blend of founder +‎ blunder[4] or from Dutch flodderen (“wade”). See other terms beginning with fl, such as flutter, flitter, float, flap, flub, flip.

flounder (third-person singular simple present flounders, present participle floundering, simple past and past participle floundered)

1. (intransitive) To act clumsily or confused; to struggle or be flustered.
   • 1859–1860, William Hamilton, edited by H[enry] L[ongueville] Mansel and John Veitch, Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:

     They have floundered on from blunder to blunder.

   He gave a good speech, but floundered when audience members asked questions he could not answer well.

   • 1996, Janette Turner Hospital, Oyster, paperback edition, Virago Press, page 136:

     He is assessing directions, but he is not lost, not floundering.

2. (intransitive) To flop around as a fish out of water.
3. (intransitive) To make clumsy attempts to move or regain one's balance.

   Robert yanked Connie's leg vigorously, causing her to flounder and eventually fall.

4. To be in serious difficulty.
   • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 159:

     Meanwhile bus and tram competition was causing the Central London Railway to flounder after its early success, and as for the City & South London ... that had always floundered.

• Frequently confused with the verb founder. The difference is one of severity; floundering (struggling to maintain a position) comes before foundering (losing it completely by falling, sinking or failing).

• “flounder”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• unfolder

flounder

1. Alternative form of flowndre