Word.ws English Dictionary

foundering

foundering is the present participle and gerund of founder.

Meaning of founder

Verb

founder (third-person singular simple present founders, present participle foundering, simple past and past participle foundered)

  1. (intransitive) To flood with water and sink.
    • We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship but we saw her sink, and then I understood for the first time what was meant by a ship foundering in the sea.1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC
  2. (especially, intransitive) To fall; to stumble and go lame.
  3. (intransitive) To fail; to miscarry.
    • All his tricks founder.1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio)...
  4. (archaic, transitive) To cause to flood and sink, as a ship.
    • We found a strong Tide setting out of the Streights to the Northward, and like to founder our Ship.1697, William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World. […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC, page 82
  5. (transitive) To disable or lame (a horse) by causing internal inflammation and soreness in the feet or limbs.

See all 11 meanings of founder

Noun

foundering (plural founderings)

  1. The act by which a vessel founders.
    • It's the nature of founderings that ships have buoyancy and are afloat one second, then lose buoyancy and sink the next.2004, Mark L. Thompson, Graveyard of the Lakes

Forms of foundering

pluralfounderings

Questions about foundering

What does foundering mean?
Foundering means the act by which a vessel founders.
What is foundering the present participle and gerund of?
Foundering is the present participle and gerund of founder.
What part of speech is foundering?
Foundering is a noun.
What is the plural of foundering?
The plural of foundering is founderings.

Words near foundering in the dictionary

  1. founderers
  2. founderess
  3. founderesses
  4. foundereth
  5. founderies
  6. foundering
  7. founderings
  8. founderitis
  9. founderous
  10. founders
  11. foundership

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: foundering (page history and authors); founder (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “foundering.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/foundering. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.