Library / English Dictionary

FOUNDER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: founder   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who founds or establishes some institution

Example:

George Washington is the father of his country

Synonyms:

beginner; father; founder; founding father

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("founder" is a kind of...):

conceiver; mastermind; originator (someone who creates new things)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "founder"):

cofounder (one of a group of founders)

coloniser; colonizer (someone who helps to found a colony)

foundress (a woman founder)

Derivation:

found (set up or lay the groundwork for)

found (set up or found)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A worker who makes metal castings

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("founder" is a kind of...):

skilled worker; skilled workman; trained worker (a worker who has acquired special skills)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "founder"):

bell founder (a person who casts metal bells)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Inflammation of the laminated tissue that attaches the hoof to the foot of a horse

Synonyms:

founder; laminitis

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("founder" is a kind of...):

inflammation; redness; rubor (a response of body tissues to injury or irritation; characterized by pain and swelling and redness and heat)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Stumble and nearly fall

Example:

the horses foundered

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "founder" is one way to...):

stumble; trip (miss a step and fall or nearly fall)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Break down, literally or metaphorically

Example:

The roof finally gave under the weight of the ice

Synonyms:

break; cave in; collapse; fall in; founder; give; give way

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "founder" is one way to...):

change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)

Verb group:

abandon; give up (stop maintaining or insisting on; of ideas or claims)

burst; collapse (cause to burst)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "founder"):

go off; implode (burst inward)

buckle; crumple (fold or collapse)

flop (fall loosely)

break (curl over and fall apart in surf or foam, of waves)

sink; slide down; slump (fall or sink heavily)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Sense 3

Meaning:

Sink below the surface

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "founder" is one way to...):

go down; go under; settle; sink (go under)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Derivation:

foundering ((of a ship) sinking)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Fail utterly; collapse

Example:

The project foundered

Synonyms:

fall flat; fall through; flop; founder

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "founder" is one way to...):

fail; go wrong; miscarry (be unsuccessful)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sentence example:

The business is going to founder

Credits

 Context examples: 

The progeny of two crosses that lacked recessive embryonic phenotypes through 5 or 6 days of development were selected as founders of two distinct lethal free lines that were designated TAB-5 and TAB-14.

(AB/Tubingen Zebrafish, NCI Thesaurus)

If they would but lie closer we might find safety, even should the cog founder.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On the 16th, he was parted from us by a storm; I heard since my return, that his ship foundered, and none escaped but one cabin boy.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

It is named in honor of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), the founder of modern nursing.

(Large Asteroid to Safely Pass Earth on Sept. 1, NASA)

Germline genetic testing method targeted to detect a specific mutation (such as a deleterious MSH2 mutation previously identified in a family), panel of mutations (such as the 3 BRCA mutations comprising the founder mutation panel for individuals of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry) or type of mutation (such as a large deletions or insertions in the BRCA1 gene).

(Mutation Analysis, NCI Dictionary)

My station, Mas'r Davy, he returned, ain't there no longer; and if ever a boat foundered, since there was darkness on the face of the deep, that one's gone down.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

By George, if Kitty isn’t foundered!

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Prendergast threw us over a chart, told us that we were shipwrecked mariners whose ship had foundered in lat. 15º N. and long 25º W., and then cut the painter and let us go.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The crew had thought she would founder and had made for the Norwegian coast in the dinghy.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

All is well with us here, save that Pepin hath the mange on his back, and Pommers hath scarce yet got clear of his stiffness from being four days on ship-board, and the more so because the sea was very high, and we were like to founder on account of a hole in her side, which was made by a stone cast at us by certain sea-rovers, who may the saints have in their keeping, for they have gone from amongst us, as has young Terlake, and two-score mariners and archers, who would be the more welcome here as there is like to be a very fine war, with much honor and all hopes of advancement, for which I go to gather my Company together, who are now at Montaubon, where they pillage and destroy; yet I hope that, by God's help, I may be able to show that I am their master, even as, my sweet lady, I am thy servant.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)