founder

• POS: Noun, Verb (intransitive)
• HYPHEN: found=er

CIDE DICTIONARY

founder, n. [Cf. OF. fondeor, F. fondateur, L. fundator.].

 One who founds, establishes, and erects; one who lays a foundation; an author; one from whom anything originates; one who endows.  [1913 Webster]

founder, n. [From Found to cast.].

 One who founds; one who casts metals in various forms; a caster; as, a founder of cannon, bells, hardware, or types.  [1913 Webster]

Fonder's dust. Same as Facing, 4. -- Founder's sand, a kind of sand suitable for purposes of molding.

founder, v. i. [OF. fondrer to fall in, cf. F. s'effondrer, fr. fond bottom, L. fundus. See Found to establish.].

•  To become filled with water, and sink, as a ship.  [1913 Webster]
•  To fall; to stumble and go lame, as a horse.  [1913 Webster]

  "For which his horse fearé gan to turn,
  And leep aside, and foundrede as he leep."  [1913 Webster]
•  To fail; to miscarry.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

founder, v. t. 

 To cause internal inflammation and soreness in the feet or limbs of (a horse), so as to disable or lame him.  [1913 Webster]

founder, n. 

 A lameness in the foot of a horse, occasioned by inflammation; closh.  James White.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

founder, n. a person who founds an institution.

Derivative

foundership n.

founder, v. & n.
--v.
1 a intr. (of a ship) fill with water and sink. b tr. cause (a ship) to founder.
2 intr. (of a plan etc.) fail.
3 intr. (of earth, a building, etc.) fall down or in, give way.
4 a intr. (of a horse or its rider) fall to the ground, fall from lameness, stick fast in mud etc. b tr. cause (a horse) to break down, esp. with founder.
--n.
1 inflammation of a horse's foot from overwork.
2 rheumatism of the chest-muscles in horses.

Etymology

ME f. OF fondrer, esfondrer submerge, collapse, ult. f. L fundus bottom

THESAURUS

founder

abort, ancestors, apprentice, architect, artificer, artist, author, be clobbered, be destroyed, be felled, be lost, be poleaxed, be staggered, be stricken, begetter, beginner, break down, builder, capsize, cave, cave in, collapse, come to grief, come to naught, come to nothing, conceiver, constructor, craftsman, creator, decline, designer, deviser, die, discoverer, droop, drown, effector, engenderer, engineer, establisher, executor, executrix, fail, fall, fall in, fall through, falter, father, flop, flop down, flump, flump down, framer, generator, give way, go down, go downhill, go lame, go under, grower, have a mishap, inaugurator, industrialist, initiator, instigator, institutor, introducer, inventor, journeyman, keel, keel over, lapse, lower, lurch, maker, manufacturer, master, master craftsman, miscarry, mother, organizer, originator, overset, overturn, past master, patriarch, pitchpole, planner, plop, plop down, plump, precursor, prime mover, producer, progenitor, raiser, realizer, run aground, sag, scuttle, set, settle, settle down, shaper, sink, sink down, sink like lead, sire, slip, slouch, slump, slump down, smith, somersault, stagger, stumble, submerge, submerse, subside, suffer a misfortune, swag, sway, topple, topple down, topple over, totter, trip, turn over, turn turtle, upset, upset the boat, wright

ROGET THESAURUS

founder

Failure

VB fail, be unsuccessful, not succeed, make vain efforts, do in vain, labor in vain, toil in vain, flunk, lose one's labor, take nothing by one's motion, bring to naught, make nothing of, wash a blackamoor white, roll the stones of Sisyphus, do by halves, lose ground, fall short of, miss, miss one's aim, miss the mark, miss one's footing, miss stays, slip, trip, stumble, make a slip, blunder, make a mess of, make a botch of, bitch it, miscarry, abort, go up like a rocket and come down like the stick, come down in flames, get shot down, reckon without one's host, get the wrong pig by the tail, get the wrong sow by the ear, limp, halt, hobble, titubate, fall, tumble, lose one's balance, fall to the ground, fall between two stools, flounder, falter, stick in the mud, run aground, split upon a rock, beat one's head against a stone wall, run one's head against a stone wall, knock one's head against a stone wall, dash one's head against a stone wall, break one's back, break down, sink, drown, founder, have the ground cut from under one, get into trouble, get into a mess, get into a scrape, come to grief, go to the wall, go to the dogs, go to pot, lick the dust, bite the dust, be defeated, have the worst of it, lose the day, come off second best, lose, fall a prey to, succumb, not have a leg to stand on, come to nothing, end in smoke, flat out, fall to the ground, fall through, fall dead, fall stillborn, fall flat, slip through one's fingers, hang fire, miss fire, flash in the pan, collapse, topple down, go to wrack and ruin, go amiss, go wrong, go cross, go hard with, go on a wrong tack, go on ill, come off ill, turn out ill, work ill, take a wrong term, take an ugly term, take an ugly turn, take a turn for the worse, be all over with, be all up with, explode, dash one's hopes, defeat the purpose, sow the wind and reap the whirlwind, jump out of the frying pan into the fire, go from the frying pan into the fire.

Producer

N producer, originator, inventor, author, founder, generator, mover, architect, creator, prime mover, maker, prime mover.

Plunge

VB plunge, dip, souse, duck, dive, plump, take a plunge, take a header, make a plunge, bathe, submerge, submerse, immerse, douse, sink, engulf, send to the bottom, get out of one's depth, go to the bottom, go down like a stone, drop like a lead balloon, founder, welter, wallow.