[f. FLOUNDER v. + -ING1.] The action of the verb FLOUNDER; a plunging, struggling, or stumbling; also fig.
1726. Adv. Capt. R. Boyle, 351. The third Day my Horse tumbled with me into a deep Swamp, and I was not only in danger of drowning, but of having my Brains dash’d out with his Hoofs in his Floundering.
1868. Boyd, Less. Mid. Age, 202. A little floundering for words,—a little look of being unequal to express what he feels,—might add to the impression made by this speaker.
1883. P. L. MacDougall, Have We an Army? in 19th Cent., XIV. Sept., 513. In the name of all that is reasonable let our recruiting system be proved inadequate, and let our organisation be fairly tried, as it has never yet been, before changing them again, and making ourselves a spectacle for the military nations of Europe by a floundering that may only plunge us deeper into the mire.
