FLOUNDER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does flounder mean? 

• FLOUNDER (noun)
  The noun FLOUNDER has 2 senses:

1. flesh of any of various American and European flatfish

2. any of various European and non-European marine flatfish

  Familiarity information: FLOUNDER used as a noun is rare.

• FLOUNDER (verb)
  The verb FLOUNDER has 2 senses:

1. walk with great difficulty

2. behave awkwardly; have difficulties

  Familiarity information: FLOUNDER used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FLOUNDER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Flesh of any of various American and European flatfish

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("flounder" is a kind of...):

flatfish (sweet lean whitish flesh of any of numerous thin-bodied fish; usually served as thin fillets)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "flounder"):

yellowtail flounder (flesh of American flounder having a yellowish tail)

plaice (flesh of large European flatfish)

turbot (flesh of a large European flatfish)

sand dab (the lean flesh of a small flounder from the Pacific coast of North America)

lemon sole; winter flounder (flesh of American flounder; important in the winter)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of various European and non-European marine flatfish

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("flounder" is a kind of...):

flatfish (any of several families of fishes having flattened bodies that swim along the sea floor on one side of the body with both eyes on the upper side)

• FLOUNDER (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they flounder    ... he / she / it flounders   
Past simple: floundered   
Past participle: floundered   
-ing form: floundering   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Walk with great difficulty

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

flounder; stagger

Context example:

He staggered along in the heavy snow

Hypernyms (to "flounder" is one way to...):

walk (use one's feet to advance; advance by steps)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

Behave awkwardly; have difficulties

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Context example:

She is floundering in college

Hypernyms (to "flounder" is one way to...):

fight; struggle (make a strenuous or labored effort)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

 Context examples 

He floundered for a fresh start.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I can see him as he was in those days with great, floundering, half-formed limbs like a Newfoundland puppy, and a face that set every woman’s head round as he passed her.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

With the last remnant of his strength he managed to stagger along behind till the train made another stop, when he floundered past the sleds to his own, where he stood alongside Sol-leks.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

People were struggling and floundering in the water about me.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

A little floundering across the sand, which was heavy, brought me to the door, and I went in.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Broad and ungainly, she floundered from wave to wave, dipping her round bows deeply into the blue rollers, and sending the white flakes of foam in a spatter over her decks.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was gazing at her with an open admiration of which he was quite unconscious, and which was drowning, along with him, in the rising sea of embarrassment in which he floundered.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

This he did, and he quickly achieved for them a mighty contempt. They were soft and helpless, made much noise, and floundered around clumsily trying to accomplish by main strength what he accomplished by dexterity and cunning.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

And thus for a time I was occupied by exploded systems, mingling, like an unadept, a thousand contradictory theories and floundering desperately in a very slough of multifarious knowledge, guided by an ardent imagination and childish reasoning, till an accident again changed the current of my ideas.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

In the silent watches of the night, while his wife slept, he had floundered through Martin's books and poems, and decided that the world was a fool to buy them.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)