founder

noun

Pronunciation: /ˈfaʊ̯n.dəː/ / [ˈfaʊ̯n.dəː] / /ˈfæʊ̯n.də/

Etymology: From Middle French fondrer (“send to the bottom”), from Latin fundus (“bottom”).

A severe laminitis of a horse, caused by untreated internal inflammation in the hooves.

Etymology: From Middle French fondrer (“send to the bottom”), from Latin fundus (“bottom”).

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.”
“This ended, in prolonged solemn tones, like the continual tolling of a bell in a ship that is foundering at sea in a fog—in such tones he commenced reading the following hymn;(...)”
To fall; to stumble and go lame.
To fail; to miscarry.
“All his tricks founder.”
“The other ambitions, and much of Prescott's plan, foundered just south of Hatfield that October, when a GNER express derailed on a shattered rail […], plunging the railway into a crisis that led to private track owner Railtrack being put into administration.”
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.”
“I was amazed when we came among the breakers (which to me seemed large enough to founder our ship), to see with what wondrous dexterity they carried us through them, and ran their canoes on the top of one of those rolling waves […]”
To disable or lame (a horse) by causing internal inflammation and soreness in the feet or limbs.