founder3
• verb 1 (of a ship) fill with water and sink. 2 (of a plan or undertaking) fail. 3 (of a horse) stumble or fall. — USAGE The words founder and flounder are often confused. In its general use, founder means ‘fail or come to nothing’, while flounder means ‘struggle; be in a state of confusion’. — ORIGIN Old French fondrer ‘submerge, collapse’, from Latin fundus ‘bottom, base’.
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