Definitions for founder
ˈfaʊn dərfounder

Princeton's WordNet(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. laminitis, foundernoun

   inflammation of the laminated tissue that attaches the hoof to the foot of a horse

2. founder, beginner, founding father, fathernoun

   a person who founds or establishes some institution

   "George Washington is the father of his country"

3. founderverb

   a worker who makes metal castings

4. fall through, fall flat, founder, flopverb

   fail utterly; collapse

   "The project foundered"

5. founderverb

   sink below the surface

6. collapse, fall in, cave in, give, give way, break, founderverb

   break down, literally or metaphorically

   "The wall collapsed"; "The business collapsed"; "The dam broke"; "The roof collapsed"; "The wall gave in"; "The roof finally gave under the weight of the ice"

7. founderverb

   stumble and nearly fall

   "the horses foundered"

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Foundernoun

   Etymology: from found.

   1. A builder; one who raises an edifice; one who presides at the erection of a city.

   Of famous cities we the founders know;
   But rivers, old as seas to which they go,
   Are nature’s bounty: ’tis of more renown
   To make a river than to build a town. Edmund Waller.

   Nor was Prœneste’s founder wanting there,
   Whom fame reports the son of Mulciber;
   Found in the fire, and foster’d in the plains;
   A shepherd and a king at once he reigns. John Dryden, Æn.

   2. One who establishes a revenue for any purpose.

   The wanting orphans saw with wat’ry eyes
   Their founders charity in the dust laid low. Dryden.

   This hath been experimentally proved beyond contradiction, by the honourable founder of this lecture in his treatise of the air. Richard Bentley.

   3. One from whom any thing has its original or beginning.

   And the rude notions of pedantick schools
   Blaspheme the sacred founder of our rules. Wentworth Dillon.

   When Jove, who saw from high, with just disdain,
   The dead inspir’d with vital breath again,
   Struck to the center with his flaming dart
   Th’ unhappy founder of the godlike art. John Dryden, Æn.

   King James I. the founder of the Stuart race, had he not confined all his views to the peace of his own reign, his son had not been involved in such fatal troubles. Joseph Addison, Freehold.

   Nor can the skilful herald trace
   The founder of thy ancient race. Jonathan Swift.

   4. [ Fondeur, French.]A caster; one who forms figures by casting melted matter into moulds.

   Founders add a little antimony to their bell-metal, to make it more sonorous; and so pewterers to their pewter, to make it sound more clear like silver. Nehemiah Grew, Musæum.

2. To Founderverb

   To cause such a soreness and tenderness in a horse’s foot, that he is unable to set it to the ground.

   Etymology: fondre, French.

   Phœbus’ steeds are founder’d,
   Or night kept chain’d below. William Shakespeare, Tempest.

   I have foundered nine score and odd posts; and here, travel-tainted as I am, have, in my pure and immaculate valour, taken Sir John Colevile of the Dale, a most furious knight: but what of that? he saw me and yielded. William Shakespeare, Henry IV.

   Thy stumbling founder’d jade can trot as high
   As any other Pegasus can fly;
   So the dull eel moves nimbler in the mud,
   Than all the swift-finn’d racers of the flood. Dorset.

   Brutes find out where their talents lie:
   A bear will not attempt to fly;
   A founder’d horse will oft debate,
   Before he tries a five-barr’d gate. Jonathan Swift.

   If you find a gentleman fond of your horse, persuade your master to sell him, because he is vicious, and foundered into the bargain. Jonathan Swift, Directions to the Groom.

   Men of discretion, whom people in power may with little ceremony load as heavy as they please, drive them through the hardest and deepest roads, without danger of foundering or breaking their backs, and will be sure to find them neither resty nor vicious. Jonathan Swift.

3. To Founderverb

   Etymology: from fond, French, the bottom.

   1. To sink to the bottom.

   New ships, built at those rates, have been ready to founder in the seas with every extraordinary storm. Walter Raleigh, Essays.

   2. To fail; to miscarry.

   In this point
   All his tricks founder; and he brings his physick
   After his patient’s death. William Shakespeare, Henry VIII.

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Foundernoun

   one who founds, establishes, and erects; one who lays a foundation; an author; one from whom anything originates; one who endows

2. Foundernoun

   one who founds; one who casts metals in various forms; a caster; as, a founder of cannon, bells, hardware, or types

3. Founderverb

   to become filled with water, and sink, as a ship

4. Founderverb

   to fall; to stumble and go lame, as a horse

5. Founderverb

   to fail; to miscarry

6. Founderverb

   to cause internal inflammation and soreness in the feet or limbs of (a horse), so as to disable or lame him

7. Foundernoun

   a lameness in the foot of a horse, occasioned by inflammation; closh

8. Foundernoun

   an inflammatory fever of the body, or acute rheumatism; as, chest founder. See Chest ffounder

9. Etymology: [OF. fondrer to fall in, cf. F. s'effondrer, fr. fond bottom, L. fundus. See Found to establish.]

Freebase(4.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. Founder

   A founder is a person involved in the creation of an organization. Many times the organization is a business, although sometimes it is a non-profit, or even a religious organization.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Founder

   fownd′ėr, v.i. to go to the bottom: to fill with water and sink.—v.t. to cause to sink: to disable by injuring the feet (of a horse).—adj. Found′erous, causing to founder. [O. Fr. fondrer, to fall in, fond, bottom—L. fundus, bottom.]

Dictionary of Nautical Terms(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. founder

   The fall of portions of cliff, as along the coasts of Hampshire and Dorsetshire, occasioned by land-springs.

Military Dictionary and Gazetteer(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. founder

   A person who casts cannon, etc.

Matched Categories

1. • Change
   • Fail
   • Inflammation
   • Sink
   • Stumble

British National Corpus

1. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'founder' in Nouns Frequency: #2213

Anagrams for founder »

1. refound

How to pronounce founder?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say founder in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of founder in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of founder in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2

Examples of founder in a Sentence

1. Richard Branson:

   You've got to remember that Virgin Galactic has people on every spaceflight... The fact that I'm willing to fly with those people shows confidence, i think the least the founder of the company can do is go up there and fly with his people.

2. Syrian President Bashar Assad:

   And now the main founder of the White Helmets has been killed, he was an officer and he had worked his whole life with NATO in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, and Lebanon.

3. Mike Bailey:

   It's possibly the most successful handoff from strength to strength in corporate history, apple Music, frankly, needed a cheerleader and a politician, possibly more than a micromanaging, stressed out founder.

4. The Foundation founder:

   The Foundation's using the art as a way to communicate your personal experience in a way that allows you to be seen, when they share back, The Foundation founder see that connection through the sharing of story, is... creating a shared vision of how we can be together.

5. Richard Branson:

   You've got to remember Virgin Galactic has people on every spaceflight... The fact that I'm willing to fly with those people shows confidence, i think the least the founder of Blue Origin can do is go up there and fly with his people.

Popularity rank by frequency of use