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Flounder is a relatively common verb that current evidence dates to the late 16th century, when it was likely born by means of an alteration of an older verb, founder. The two have been confused ever since. Today, founder is most often used as a synonym of fail, or, in the case of a waterborne vessel, as a word meaning "to fill with water and sink." Formerly, it was also frequently applied when a horse stumbled badly and was unable to keep walking. It's likely this sense of founder led to the original and now-obsolete meaning of flounder: "to stumble." In modern use, flounder typically means "to struggle" or "to act clumsily"; the word lacks the finality of founder, which usually denotes complete collapse or failure, as that of a sunken ship.
Synonyms
Examples of flounder in a Sentence
Jp Shaffer, Miami Herald, 4 Apr. 2024
Features Vanesa flounders in the wake of her mother’s death, while Dita, who never aspired to be a parent, struggles to fill the void left behind.
—Elaina Patton, NBC News, 3 Apr. 2024
Closer to the shore and in the bay, the daily catch could include redfish, flounder, black drum, and trout.
—Southern Living Editors, Southern Living, 4 Mar. 2024
Cliff Harbour, a veteran educator who for 14 years was a community college faculty member and administrator in North Carolina, has seen lots of young people pursuing associate’s degrees flounder and drop out because of insufficient support.
—Rick Wartzman, Fortune, 14 Dec. 2023
Sea bass, flounder, ocean perch, and red snapper are all great choices, around a pound in weight.
—Lucas Sin, Bon Appétit, 20 Mar. 2024
Griselda indeed succeeds as compensation for previous and perhaps even upcoming treatments of Blanco — a movie with Jennifer Lopez has been long in development — but flounders in over-compensation.
—Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Jan. 2024
Its flavor is more pronounced, too: The flounder has a distinct brininess, which stands up better to the richness of the brioche bun and the acidity of the pickles and tartar sauce.
—Tim Carman, Washington Post, 28 Feb. 2024
First introduced back in 2021, the flounder fish sandwich comes in classic and spicy options.
—Sabrina Weiss, Peoplemag, 15 Feb. 2024
Chloe Berger, Fortune, 5 Apr. 2024
Three weeks ago, the floundering Wolfpack was on the outside of the NCAAs — not even a bubble team, in fact.
—Jon Wilner, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Apr. 2024
That latest entry in the floundering Sony Spider-Man Universe of spinoffs ends its run with only about $100 million worldwide.
—Mark Hughes, Forbes, 30 Mar. 2024
But given two or three recruiting cycles, a program that floundered in the mediocre Pac-12 could be competitive in the rugged ACC.
—Jon Wilner, The Mercury News, 25 Mar. 2024
Without waiters, the city’s many cafes, bars and restaurants would flounder.
—Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Mar. 2024
Reddit has found a way to improve sales — which were up more than 20% in 2023 to $804 million — where Snap and X (formerly Twitter) have floundered.
—Laura Bratton, Quartz, 21 Mar. 2024
Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter is an inspired choice, but offensive coordinator Greg Roman has a lot to prove after his passing game floundered in Baltimore.
—C.j. Doon, Baltimore Sun, 12 Feb. 2024
The series finale jumps ahead to 2003 and 2004 as a floundering Dexter resorts to his old substance-abuse habits in a self-destructive attempt to cope with his grief.
—Megan McCluskey, TIME, 8 Feb. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'flounder.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near flounder
Cite this Entry
“Flounder.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flounder. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
flounder
1 of 2 noun
flounder
2 of 2 verb
Noun
Middle English flounder "a flatfish"; of Scandinavian origin
Verb
probably an altered form of founder "to go lame, collapse"
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