Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Flounder |
FlounderNoun1. Flesh of any of various American and European flatfish. 2. Any of various European and non-European marine flatfish. Verb1. Walk with great difficulty; as in snow or mud. 2. Behave awkwardly; have difficulties; "She is floundering in college". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "flounder" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Health | Common name for two families of fish belonging to the order Pleuronectiformes and described as left-eye flounders and right-eye flounders. The latter is more commonly used in research. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The flounder is an odd looking fish, his belly being on one side and his back on the other. He is shaped something like the sunfish or pumpkin seed, and on the edges, where the belly and back of an ordinary fish would naturally be, he has continuous fins from neck to tail. The back is of a dark color, both eyes being on that side, and gauged to look upwards at an angle about one-fifth forward from perpendicular; and his belly is usually white. The size of the flounder varies from five to fifteen, and sometimes to twenty-four inches in length, the breadth being about one-half the length. Their feeding ground is the soft mud of the bottom, near to bridge spiles, docks, and other bottom incumbrances, and they are sometimes found on bass grounds. They feed on the spawn of fishes, and on muscles and insects.
Winter flounderThe time for fishing the flounder is the spring and fall months. In the summer he may be taken, but his flesh is soft and unwholesome. He will bite at almost anything used in salt water for fish bait, and in fishing him you may use any kind of tackle. A small hook is however necessary - No. 8 being the usual size. Flounders are an excellent pan fish; but they should be cooked as soon as possible after being taken. They are very plentiful on the shores of Long Island Sound, in New York Bay, and in the inlets of New Jersey. The Boston market is abundantly supplied with them from the numerous fishing grounds of that neighborhood.
Flounders--a la creme - From the 1881 Household Cyclopedia
Scale, clean, and wrap your fish in a cloth, boil it gently in plenty of water well salted; when done drain it carefully without breaking, lay it on your dish and mask it with cream or white onion sauce.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Flounder."
Synonym: FlounderSynonym: stagger (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Agitation | Verb: be agitated; shake; tremble, tremble like an aspen leaf; quiver, quaver, quake, shiver, twitter, twire, writhe, toss, shuffle, tumble, stagger, bob, reel, sway, wag, waggle; wriggle, wriggle like an eel; dance, stumble, shamble, flounder, totter, flounce, flop, curvet, prance, cavort; squirm. |
Changeableness | Verb: fluctuate, vary, waver, flounder, flicker, flitter, flit, flutter, shift, shuffle, shake, totter, tremble, vacillate, wamble, turn and turn about, ring the changes; sway to and fro, shift to and fro; change and change about; waffle, blow with the wind (irresolute); oscillate; vibrate between, two extremes, oscillate between, two extremes; alternate; have as man phases as the moon. |
Difficulty | Get into a scrape; Noun: bring a hornet's nest about one's ears; be put to one's shifts; flounder, boggle, struggle; not know which way to turn; (uncertain); perdre son Latin; stick at, stick in the mud, stick fast; come to a stand, come to a standstill, come to a deadlock; hold the wolf by the ears, hold the tiger by the tail. |
Evolution | Fluctuate, dance, curvet, reel, quake; quiver, quaver; shake, flicker; wriggle; roll, toss, pitch; flounder, stagger, totter; move up and down, bob up and down; AdVerb: pass and repass, ebb and flow, come and go; vacillate; teeter. |
Failure | Limp, halt, hobble, fall, tumble; lose one's balance; fall to the ground, fall between two stools; flounder, falter, stick in the mud, run aground, split upon a rock; beat one's head against a stone wall, run one's head against a stone wall, knock one's head against a stone wall, dash one's head against a stone wall; break one's back; break down, sink, drown, founder, have the ground cut from under one; get into trouble, get into a mess, get into a scrape; come to grief; (adversity); go to the wall, go to the dogs, go to pot; lick the dust, bite the dust; be defeated; have the worst of it, lose the day, come off second best, lose; fall a prey to; succumb; (submit); not have a leg to stand on. |
Flatness | Adjective: flat, plane, even, flush, scutiform, discoid; level; (horizontal); flat as a pancake, flat as a fluke, flat as a flounder, flat as a board, flat as my hand. |
Uncertainty | Not know what to make of; (unintelligibility), not know which way to turn, not know whether one stands on one s head or one's heels; float in a sea of doubt,hesitate, flounder; lose oneself, lose one's head; muddle one's brains. |
Unskillfulness | Verb: be unskillful; Adjective: not see an inch beyond one's nose; blunder, bungle, boggle, fumble, botch, bitch, flounder, stumble, trip; hobble; put one's foot in it; make a mess of, make hash of, make sad work of; overshoot the mark. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Flounder |
| English words defined with "flounder": bottom fish ♦ Craig flounder ♦ Etropus rimosus ♦ Floundered, Floundering, Foolfish ♦ gray flounder, groundfish ♦ Heterosomata, Hippoglossus stenolepsis ♦ lemon sole, Limanda ferruginea ♦ Marysole, Mud dab ♦ order Heterosomata, order Pleuronectiformes ♦ Pacific halibut, Paralichthys dentatus, Paralichthys lethostigmus, Pleuronectoid, Pole flounder ♦ sand dab, Sandnecker, Scaldfish, Scophthalmus aquosus, southern flounder, summer flounder ♦ whiff, windowpane, Winter flounder ♦ yellowtail flounder. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "flounder": Flatfishes. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "flounder": Water flounder. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Better listen to him, Flounder, he's in pre-med (Animal House; writing credit: Harold Ramis; Douglas Kenney) Flounder, I am appointing you pledge representative to the social committee (Animal House; writing credit: Harold Ramis; Douglas Kenney) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Fisheries scientist with a flounder. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |  | Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council Meeting. Stock Assessment Workshop on Flounder and Lobster. Credit: Fisheries. |
 | The introduction of toxins into the marine environment have drastic effects on the organisms that live there. Close up of a Starry flounder with fin erosion. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |  | A flounder swims through a healthy bed of seagrass. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |
 | Estuaries serve as vital nurseries for a wide variety of fishes, shellfishes, and birds. The bellies of these three juvenile fishes are packed full of goodies from the marsh's bounty. Pictured here from top to bottom are young of the year mullet, flounder, and spot, all of which enter North Inlet Estuary in February from their offshore places of birth. Credit: National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERR). |  | North Inlet - Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. A very dark color variation of the southern flounder, Paralicthys legostigma. Both sides of this fish are darkly pigmented. Only the head on the ventral side shows the traditional light color. Credit: National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERR). |
 | Hawaiian flounder - Samariscus triocellatus. Credit: The Coral Kingdom. |  | Peacock flounder - Bothus lunatus. Credit: The Coral Kingdom. |
 | A Dusky Flounder. Credit: Sanctuaries. |  | Arctic flounder. Credit: Alaska Image Library. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| "Flounder" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 67.92% of the time. "Flounder" is used about 53 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 67.92% | 36 | 57,479 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 22.64% | 12 | 101,599 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 9.43% | 5 | 157,705 |
| Total | 100.00% | 53 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "flounder": blackback flounder ♦ craig flounder ♦ flat as a flounder ♦ flounder in an explanation ♦ gray flounder ♦ lefteye flounder ♦ lefteyed flounder ♦ pole flounder ♦ righteye flounder ♦ righteyed flounder ♦ southern flounder ♦ spotted sand flounder ♦ summer flounder ♦ water flounder ♦ winter flounder ♦ witch flounder ♦ yellowtail flounder. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "flounder"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | shojzë (flatfish, turbot), shllapurit (Wade), shllapuris (Wade), rropatje, rropatem (drudge), ngecje (haw, locking, slack, stumble), ngec (break down, conk out, fob off, foist, foul, hesitate, hitch, jam, Lodge, pack up, plant, run down, seize, throw, thrust), belbëzoj (falter, haw, splutter, stammer, stutter), belbëzim (haw, splutter, stammering, stutter, titubation). (various references) | |
Arabic | تقدم متعثرا (flounce, wallop, wallow), تعثر (halt, stumble, trip, tumble), تخبط (blunder, flounce, wallow). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | цапане, камбала (fluke), газя (jaw, paddle, puddle, tick off, trample, wade), газене (trample), мъча се да стана, загазвам (stick), забърквам се, писия (dab, fluke, plaice). (various references) | |
Chinese | "目魚 (flatfish), "目鱼 (fluke). (various references) | |
Czech | bořit se v bahnì. (various references) | |
Danish | skrubbe (European flounder, fluke). (various references) | |
Dutch | zich aftobben (struggle, writhe), worstelen (struggle, wrestle, writhe), spartelen (struggle, writhe). (various references) | |
Esperanto | barakti (struggle, writhe). (various references) | |
Faeroese | sprakla (struggle, writhe). (various references) | |
Finnish | kampela (flat-fish). (various references) | |
French | frétiller, flondre (fluke, mud flounder, white fluke), flet d'Europe (fluke, mud flounder, white fluke), flet commun (European flounder, fluke), flet (European flounder, fluke, mud flounder, white fluke), se démener, se débattre, se bredouiller, patauger. (various references) | |
German | flunder (fluke), zappeln (fidget, flounce, jiggle, struggle, thrash about, to flounce, to flounder, wriggle, writhe). (various references) | |
Greek | παραδέρνω (drift, give a good thrashing). (various references) | |
Hebrew | ל"ת "ל בכב"ות, "' מש" רב ו (flatfish, plaice, sole), "' "ס "ל. (various references) | |
Hungarian | lepényhal (butt, dab, flatfish, fluke, plaice). (various references) | |
Indonesian | menggelepur (flutter), geletak (flutter). (various references) | |
Italian | fare errori, sorta di pesce, passera pianuzza (European flounder, fluke), passera (European flounder, European plaice, fluke, plaice, witch, witch flounder), dibattersi, agitarsi (agitate, bestir oneself, bustle, fidget, flutter, fuss, rain, rainfall, ruffle, shake, stir, tingle, toss, tumble, twitch, wag). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 鰈 (flatfish, sole, turbot), 鮃 (flatfish, halibut), 平目 (flatfish, halibut). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ひらめ (flatfish, halibut), かれい (adding to one's years, beauty, butler, dried boiled rice, family custom, flatfish, good example, happy precedent, magnificence, sole, splendor, steward, turbot). (various references) | |
Korean | 도다리. (various references) | |
Manx | tuittym (abate, befall, cadence, cadence of voice, calming, collapse, come off, crumple, decline, depreciate; abatement, depreciation, descend, die down, droop, drop fall, fall off, fall out, fall over, falling, falter, floundering, founder, go down, incidence, keel over, lapse, overbalance, sag, slump, subside, subsidence, tip over, topple, tumble, waver, waver of courage, wavering), strepey (exert, exertion, grapple, strive, struggle, tug, tussle, wallow), liehbage Albinagh, liebage Albinagh. (various references) | |
Norwegian | flyndre, bakse (flop). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ounderflay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | estrebuchar (struggle, writhe). (various references) | |
Romanian | zbatere, vorbi cu greutate, se zbate (flounce, struggle), se exprima greu, se bãlãci (mess, paddle, slush about, wallow), se încurca la vorbã, poticni, plãticã (flat fish, roach), opintire (effort, heaving), cambulã (dab), bãlãcealã (splashing), înaintare greoaie. (various references) | |
Russian | камбала (flatfish, flue, fluke, plaice). (various references) | |
Scottish | lèabag (a flounder). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | spotaći se (stumble), iverak (butt, fluke, halibut, turbot), batrgati se (stagger). (various references) | |
Spanish | forcejeo (struggle, tussle), quedar indeciso, platija europea (European flounder, fluke), platija (flat fish, fluke, plaice), patalear, no saber que hacer (be at a loose end, be at one's wits' end, dither, mooch about, mooch around), lenguado (dab, sole), desconcertarse (become confused, bowl over), debatirse (struggle, thrash about), aletear (flap, flicker, flutter, quiver its wings, skirr, thrashing, wave, waver). (various references) | |
Swedish | flundra (flatfish), sprattla (flop, flounce), plumsa (flop, plop). (various references) | |
Turkish | dere pisisi (lemon dab), debelenmek (struggle, writhe), bocalamak (be in two minds, falter, fluctuate, fluster, get confused, halt, oscillate, stagger, teeter, vacillate, waver, wobble), boşuna çabalamak, bata çıka yürümek (wallop), şaşırıp kalmak. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | скрута (adversity, cumber), спотикатися (blunder into, chip, falter, stammer, stumble, titubate, trip), спотикання (stumble, trip), борсатися (busk, dabble, wallow, welter), плоска риба (whiff). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | sự loạng choạng cố tiến lên, sự lúng túng (abashment, discomfiture, disconcertment, embarrassiment, perplexity, sheepishness). (various references) | |
Welsh | swalpio (bounce, jump). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | Flesus flesus, Platichthys flesus, Platichthys flesus (Linnaeus,1758), Pleuronectes flesus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "flounder": floundered, floundering, flounders. (additional references) | |
| |
"Flounder" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: flandre, Fliedner, flouder, flound, floundr, flownder, Fluder, Frolunda. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "flounder" (pronounced flou"nder) |
| 4 | -ou" n d er | bounder, cofounder, founder, pounder, rounder, sounder. |
| 3 | -n d er | Ender, engender, Alexander, asunder, attainder, auslander, Bander, bartender, bender, binder, blander, blender, blinder, blonder, blunder, bookbinder, brander, bystander, calamander, calendar, candor, cinder, commander, Condor, contender, coriander, cylinder, defender, extender, Fender, finder, fonder, gander, gender, gerrymander, grander, grinder, highlander, hinder, islander, kinder, Lander, launder, lavender, lender, mainlander, meander, minder, offender, oleander, pander, pathfinder, Pinder, plunder, ponder, pretender, rejoinder, remainder, reminder, render, responder, salamander, sander, sender, Sidewinder, slander, slender, Spender, splendor, squander, Stander, sunder, surrender, suspender, tender, thunder, tinder, transponder, under, vendor, viewfinder, wander, weekender, winder, wonder, yonder, Zander. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: unfolder. | |
| Words within the letters "d-e-f-l-n-o-r-u" | |
-1 letter: floured, fondler, founder, refound, roundel. | |
-2 letters: enduro, enfold, folder, fonder, fondle, fondue, fouled, fouler, furled, louden, louder, loured, nodule, nurled, refold, refund, rolfed, rondel, rundle, undoer, unfold. | |
-3 letters: drone, enrol, felon, flour, flued, fluor, fondu, found, frond, loden, loner, lured, nerol, nuder, olden, older, redon, rouen, round, ruled, under, unfed, unled, uredo. | |
-4 letters: delf. | |
| Words containing the letters "d-e-f-l-n-o-r-u" | |
+1 letter: flounders, underflow, unfolders, wonderful. | |
+2 letters: floundered, underflows. | |
+3 letters: floundering, fluorinated, hundredfold, wonderfully. | |
+4 letters: furazolidone, unaffordable, unformulated. | |
+5 letters: furazolidones, nonrefundable, splendiferous, wonderfulness. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
