flounder

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“
Three species -- flounder, tarpon and cobia -- all seem to be on their game during full moons, while most of the other sought-after species get lock-jaw.

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Definitions (25)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. intransitive verb To make clumsy attempts to move or regain one's balance.
  2. intransitive verb To move or act clumsily and in confusion. See Synonyms at blunder. See Usage Note at founder1.
  3. noun The act of floundering.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (14)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples (48)

  • Three species -- flounder, tarpon and cobia -- all seem to be on their game during full moons, while most of the other sought-after species get lock-jaw. —  Island Packet: Home
  • However, the flounder is the only asymmetric creature I can think of - hello 180 degree blind angle. —  Original Signal - Transmitting Buzz
  • The winter flounder, a bottom-dweller with both eyes on the right side of its head, isn't the most profitable New England fish but it's suddenly become one of the most important_ and fishermen say that's all wrong. —  WTOP / Business / Biz Stories
  • BOSTON -- The winter flounder, a bottom-dweller with both eyes on the right side of its head, isn't the most profitable New England fish but it's suddenly become one of the most important - and fishermen say that's all wrong. —  TheSunNews.com: Local
  • BOSTON -- The winter flounder, a bottom-dweller with both eyes on the right side of its head, isn't the most profitable New England fish but it's suddenly become one of the most important -- and fishermen say that's all wrong. —  UnderwaterTimes.com News of the Underwater World
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same contextWord Family

flounder:   floundering ·  floundered ·  flounders
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Probably alteration of founder1.
  2. Middle English, from Anglo-Norman floundre, of Scandinavian origin; see plat- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. Perhaps a nasalized form, influenced by flounce or flounder, of Dutch flodderen, (1) splash through the mire (flodder, mire, dirt), (2) dangle, flap, wave; in the latter senses another form (= Middle High German vladern, German fladdern, flattern = Swedish fladdra) of Old Dutch vlederen (= Middle High German vledern), flutter: see flutter and flatter.
  2. from flounder, v.
  3. from Middle English flounder, flowndur = German flunder, flünder, from Swedish Norwegian flundra = Danish flynder = Icelandic flydhra, a flounder.
 

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/ˈflaʊndər/
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