founder

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To sink below the surface of the water: The ship struck a reef and foundered.
2. v. To cave in; sink: The platform swayed and then foundered.
3. v. To fail utterly; collapse: a marriage that soon foundered.
4. v. To stumble, especially to stumble and go lame. Used of horses.
5. v. To become ill from overeating. Used of livestock.
6. v. To be afflicted with laminitis. Used of horses.
7. v. To cause to founder.
8. n. See laminitis.
9. n. One who establishes something or formulates the basis for something: the founder of a university; the founders of a new nation.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. One who founds or establishes. One who lays a foundation or begins to build: as, the founder of a temple or a city.
2. n. An originator; one from whom anything derives its beginning; an author: as, the founder of a sect of philosophers; the founder of a family.
3. n. One who establishes by endowment; one who provides a permanent fund for any purpose: as, the founder of a college or hospital.
4. n. A creator; a maker.
5. n. One who founds metals, or articles of metal or glass (the material of which is called metal); a caster: as, a founder of cannon, bells, printing-types, etc.
6. Nautical, to fill or become filled and sink, as a ship.
7. Hence To fail; miscarry.
8. To trip; stumble; go lame, as a horse.
9. Naut., to cause to fill and sink, as a ship.
10. To cause internal inflammation in the feet of, as a horse, so as to disable or lame him.
11. n. In farriery, lameness caused by inflammation within the hoof of a horse; laminitis. Also called closh.
12. In golf, to drive the ball into the ground by turning in the face of the club when striking.

Wiktionary

1. n. One who founds, establishes, and erects; one who lays a foundation; an author; one from whom something originates; one who endows.
2. n. genetics Someone for whose parents one has no data.
3. n. The iron worker in charge of the blast furnace and the smelting operation.
4. v. intransitive Of a ship, to fill with water and sink.
5. v. intransitive To fall; to stumble and go lame, as a horse.
6. v. intransitive To fail; to miscarry.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. One who founds, establishes, and erects; one who lays a foundation; an author; one from whom anything originates; one who endows.
2. n. One who founds; one who casts metals in various forms; a caster.
3. v. (Naut.) To become filled with water, and sink, as a ship.
4. v. To fall; to stumble and go lame, as a horse.
5. v. To fail; to miscarry.
6. v. To cause internal inflammation and soreness in the feet or limbs of (a horse), so as to disable or lame him.
7. n. A lameness in the foot of a horse, occasioned by inflammation; closh.
8. n. An inflammatory fever of the body, or acute rheumatism. See chest ffounder.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. inflammation of the laminated tissue that attaches the hoof to the foot of a horse
2. v. stumble and nearly fall
3. v. sink below the surface
4. v. break down, literally or metaphorically
5. n. a worker who makes metal castings
6. n. a person who founds or establishes some institution
7. v. fail utterly; collapse.