Link Centre Dictionary

flounder

floun·der

UK/ˈflaʊ̯ndəː/ US/ˈflæʊ̯ndəː/ uncommon us
verb (2) noun (2)

verb

1.

walk with great difficulty

  • “He staggered along in the heavy snow”
Synonyms
2.

behave awkwardly; have difficulties

  • “She is floundering in college”

noun

1.
2.

any of various European and non-European marine flatfish

Origin

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

Phrases

  • armless flounder
  • arrowtooth flounder
  • Baltic flounder
  • barfin flounder
  • black flounder
  • blackback flounder
  • blackfin flounder
  • California flounder

Related words

Word family

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.