Also 6–7 flunder. [Of obscure etymology.
Perh. an onomatopœic blending of the sound and sense of various earlier words; cf. FOUNDER v. (OF. fondrer), BLUNDER, and the many vbs. with initial fl- expressing impetuous and clumsy movements. Wedgwood and Skeat compare Du. flodderen, to flounder in mire, to flop about: see the dialectal FLODDER v., which may have affected the development of the present word.]
1. intr. In early use, to stumble (cf. FOUNDER v.). Subsequently, to struggle violently and clumsily; to plunge, roll and tumble about in or as in mire; also (with on, along, etc.), to move on with clumsy or rolling gait, to struggle along with difficulty. Of a horse: To rear, plunge; † to ‘shy’ (at an object).
1592. Wyrley, Armorie, 101.
| With kindled courage as I forward rusht | |
| Purposing my enimies ouerthro, | |
| My foot did slide and all proud brauerie crusht, | |
| Flundring, almost flat on earth I go. |
a. 1625. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, II. iii.
| Soph. Then if she flownder with you, | |
| Clap spurs on. |
1687. Dryden, Hind & P., III. 300.
| He champs the bit, impatient of his loss, | |
| And starts a-side and flounders at the cross. |
1735. Somerville, The Chace, III. 135.
| Another in the treach’rous Bog | |
| Lies flound’ring half ingulph’d. |
1834. Medwin, Angler in Wales, I. 291. In delivering his harpoon he lost his balance, and man and fish lay floundering together in the rapid, to the great amusement of the lookers on.
1840. Thackeray, Paris Sk.-bk. (1872), 184. You are so wonderfully sagacious that you flounder in mud at every step, so amazingly clear-sighted that your eyes can not see an inch before you, having put out with that extinguishing genius of yours every one of the lights that are sufficient for the conduct of common men.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., ii. (1889), 17. The four-oar floundered on ahead.
quasi-trans.
1694. Congreve, Double-Dealer, IV. v. Mel. Consider I have you on the hook; you will but flounder yourself a-weary, and be nevertheless my prisoner.
1816. Chalmers, Lett., in Life (1851), II. 66. With the risk of floundering its uncertain way through the palaverments of law, and the labyrinth of its inextricable reasonings, and the darkness of its bewildering phraseology.
b. transf. and fig.
1684. H. More, Answer, 299. It would amaze any man of an ingenuous Spirit to observe how strangely the Remarker in the very entrance shuffles and flunders to evade the force of the plain and orderly Reasoning of the Expositor.
1728. Pope, The Dunciad, I. 117.
| [The Hero] Plung’d for his sense, but found no bottom there, | |
| Yet wrote, and flounder’d on, in mere despair. |
1807–8. W. Irving, Salmagundi (1824), 202. He dashed off to a ball, time enough to flounder through a cotillion, tear half a dozen gowns, commit a number of other depredations, and make the whole company sensible of his infinite condescension in coming amongst them.
1822. Hazlitt, Table-t., Ser. II. v. (1869), 123. They flounder about between fustian in expression, and bathos in sentiment.
1865. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., VII. XVIII. v. 178. The poor Prince’s mind did flounder a good deal; and his procedures succeeded extremely ill on this occasion.
† 2. trans. To cause to flounder: to confound, embarrass. Obs.
1654. Gayton, Pleasant Notes upon Don Quixot, III. ii. 74. He … fell into Cocytus amongst the pickle, he came to augment, where floundred extreamly and uncouthly accoutred, yet he resolv’d to call for no helpe.
1685. H. More, Paralip. Prophet., 154. Those Interpreters … flunder and confound all.
† 3. To flounder up: to choke up (a watercourse). Obs. [Cf. FLODDER v.]
1576. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 385. The streame behinde Oseney ys so floundred up that the water cannot passe in winter…. The dyches … are so floundred up wth flaggs and fylth, that the water hathe not his passage.
† 4. intr. Of soil: To fall in. [Cf. OF. fondrer in same sense.] Obs.
1774. G. White, Selborne, xx. (1789), 177. Or may they [Sand-martins] not in other places fall in with a soil as much too loose and mouldering, liable to flounder, and threatening to overwhelm them and their labours?
Hence Flounderer, one who flounders.
1836. Hor. Smith, The Tin Trumpet (1876), 345.
| Learn this, ye flounderers in the traps | |
| Of insulated lines and scraps. |
