▪ I. † ˈfounder, n.1 Obs.
[f. found v.1 + -er1.]
One who tests: only in ale-founder = ale-conner.
| c 1500 Bk. of Brome (1886) 164 Enquere..of yower alle⁓founders, ȝef they hawe do yer office well and trwly. |
▪ II. founder, n.2
(ˈfaʊndə(r))
[f. found v.2 + -er1: cf. OF. fondeor, -eur.]
1. a. ‘One who raises an edifice; one who presides at the erection of a city’ (J.).
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 79 Þe foundour of þis citee is vnknowe. c 1440 Bone Flor. 11 Antenowre..fownder of Jerusalem. 1611 Coryat Crudities 8 Julius Cæsar was the first founder of this tower. 1728 Newton Chronol. Amended i. 161 Every City set up the worship of its own Founder. 1838 Murray's Handbk. N. Germ. 477 The building displays..the taste of different founders. |
† b. A maker or creator. Obs.
| a 1375 Joseph Arim. 68 He þat is mi foundeor may hit folfulle, Þat was ded on þe cros & bouȝte us so deore. |
2. One who sets up or institutes for the first time; one who gives its first beginning to (an institution, sect, etc.). Formerly in wider use, an originator (of a practice or custom).
| 1340–70 Alex. & Dind. 664 He [Mars] was fihtere fel & foundur of werre. 1389 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 101 Y⊇ first foundurs of y{supi}{sups} gilde. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VII, 32 b, No man could tell who was the authoure and founder of that rumoure. 1563 Homilies ii. Wilful Rebel. iv. (1859) 583 Sathan, the first founder of Rebellion. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. i. Contents §17 Leucippus and Democritus..were..the Founders of that Philosophy which is Atheistically Atomical. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 24 Pallas..Thou Founder of the Plough and Plough-man's Toyl. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. I. 357 Like Augustus, Diocletian may be considered as the founder of a new empire. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 24 George Fox, the founder of the sect of Quakers. 1874 Helps Soc. Press. iii. 52 The founders of great fortunes and great families. |
3. One who founds or establishes (an institution) with an endowment for its perpetual maintenance.
| 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 2584 He was fyrst founder and syre Of þe cherche of Knares myre. 1535–6 Act 27 Hen. VIII, c. 28 Suche as pretende to be foundours, patrons or donours of suche relygyous houses. 1682 Prideaux Lett. (Camden) 122 Our founders monument being defaced in the late wars, I am again restoreing it. 1693 Bentley Boyle Lect. ii. 8 The Honourable Founder of this Lecture. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Universities Wks. (Bohn) II. 89 The pictures of the founders hang from the walls. |
† 4. One who supports or maintains another. Obs.
| 1548 Hall Chron. (1809) 491 He [Perkyn Warbeck]..with all hys complices and confederates, and Jhon Awater..one of hys founders and hys sonne, were..arreyned and condempned at Westmynster. 1613 Beaum. & Fl. Captain i. iii, What a vengeance ails you, To be so childish to imagine me A founder of old fellows? |
5. founder member, a person belonging to or associated with the founding of a society or institution; founder's-shares, (-parts) pl., shares issued to the founders of a public company, as part of the consideration for the business or concession which is taken over, and not forming a part of the ordinary capital. Cf. foundation 8 b.
| 1889 Daily News 24 Oct. 7/2 The value of..founders' shares has grown unwieldy. 1896 Athenæum 1 Feb. 143/2 The invention of ‘founders' shares’..dates only from 1889. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 23 Apr. 9/3 The committee of the Aero Club of the United Kingdom have decided that after the first thousand members have been elected, such thousand members being founder members, the subscription will be raised and an entrance fee charged. 1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 8 Mar. 63/2 A founder-member of the British Charollais Committee..said many farmers would like to see Charollais imported. |
▪ III. founder, n.3
(ˈfaʊndə(r))
[f. found v.3 + -er1. Cf. OF. (and mod.F.) fondeur.]
1. One who founds or casts metal, or makes articles of cast metal. Often in comb., with the metal or article specified, as bell-founder, iron-founder, type-founder.
| 1402 in Rot. Parl. III. 520 Bartilmew Dekene, Founder. 1560 Bible (Genev.) Jer. vi. 29 The lead is consumed in the fyre: the founder melteth in vaine. 1637 Decree Star Chamber xxvii. in Arb. Milton's Areop. 21 That there shall be foure Founders of letters for printing allowed. 1681 Grew Musæum iii. iii. 334 Founders add a little [antimony] to their Bell-Metal, to make it more sonorous. 1705 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) V. 581 Her majesties founder has orders to cast 60 heavy cannon. 1724 Swift Drapier's Lett. Wks. 1755 V. ii. 28 Let Mr. Wood and his crew of founders and tinkers coin on. 1892 Labour Commission Gloss. s.v., Master founders are the owners or managers of a foundry for making iron or brass castings. |
b. One who founds glass.
| 1853 Ure Dict. Arts I. 905 The glass-founder. 1885 Instr. Census Clerks 89 Glass Manufacture [Workmen employed in] Metal Making: Founder. |
2. Comb., as founder's dust, founder's sand (see quots.).
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Founders' Dust, charcoal powder, and coal and coke dust ground fine and sifted for casting purposes in foundries. Ibid., Founders' sand, a species of sand obtained from Lewisham, Kent, and other districts, for making foundry moulds. |
▪ IV. founder, n.4
(ˈfaʊndə(r))
[f. founder v.]
† 1. pl. Grounds, lees, sediment. Cf. F. fondrilles. Obs.
| c 1450 M.E. Med. Bk. (Heinrich) 176 Do awey þe foundres [v.r. groundes] vnderneþe. |
2. The action of the verb founder; a landslip.
| 1882 Cornh. Mag. Dec. 738 A series of founders or land⁓slips, caused by the undermining of the solid strata. |
▪ V. founder, n.5
(ˈfaʊndə(r))
[app. f. found, pa. pple. of find v. + -er1.]
† 1. = finder. Obs.
| 1577 Frampton Joyful News in App. Jas. I's Counterbl. (Arb.) 84 Lorde Nicot..first founder out of this hearbe. |
2. spec. in Derbysh. Lead-mining (see quot. 1851).
| 1601 High Peak Art. l. in Mander Derbysh. Min. Gloss. (1824) 130 Who..were or pretended to be possessed of the same ground as taker of a Fore-field for an old founder. 1851 Tapping Lead-mining Terms (E.D.S.), Founder is the mining term expressive of the finder of a vein, or rake, or in ordinary language, a miner. |
3. That portion of a lead-mine which is given to the first finder of the vein; hence, the part first worked. Called also founder-meer, founder-shaft.
| 1653 E. Manlove Lead-Mines 59 (E.D.S.) If two Founders in one Rake be set. 1747 Hooson Miner's Dict. I ijb, Sometimes it happens that there is two Founders in the same Vein, for a Vein may be found at a distance from my Founder. 1802 Mawe Min. Derbysh. 204 Foundermere, the first 32 yards of ground worked. Ibid., Foundershaft, the first shaft that is sunk. 1851 Act 14 & 15 Vict. c. 94 §2 The Word ‘Founder’ shall mean the Point at which a Vein of Ore shall be first found..the Words ‘Founder-Meers’ shall mean the Two first Meers to be set out to the Finder. |
▪ VI. founder, n.6
(ˈfaʊndə(r))
Also 6 fownder.
[f. founder v. (senses 4–5).]
1. Inflammation of the laminar structures of a horse's foot, resulting usually from overwork; a similar disease in dogs.
| 1547 Salesbury Welsh Dict., Fraeo val march, fownder. 1708 J. C. Compl. Collier (1845) 34 They are subject to Beat or Founder to their Feet or Leggs. 1825 Loudon Agric. §6517 (1831) 987 Founder of the feet. 1884 T. Speedy Sport iii. 31 Kennel lameness, founder, and rheumatism [in dogs] are often caused by [etc.] |
2. A rheumatic affection of the muscles of the chest in horses. Called also body-founder, chest-founder.
| 1737 Bracken Farriery Impr. (1756) I. 275 They were often mistaken even in what they call the Chest or Body⁓founder. 1818 Sporting Mag. II. 171, I agree with the French writers that the founder is a fluxion. |
▪ VII. founder, v.
(ˈfaʊndə(r))
[a. OF. fondrer to plunge to the bottom, submerge; also intr. to collapse, fall in ruins:—f. L. fundus bottom.
The simple vb. fondrer appears to be rare in OF.; the compounds esfondrer, enfondrer, are common, and occur in most of the senses below; cf. afounder, enfounder, of which founder in some uses may be an aphetic form. The r in the OF. vb. is variously accounted for: see Hatz.-Darm. s.v. effondrer, Körting Lat.-Rom.-Wb. s. vv. exfundulare, infundulare; a popular Lat. type *fundorāre may have existed, f. fundora (see Du Cange) pl. of fundus neut., whence Fr. fonds, founce.]
† 1. trans. To burst or smash (something) in; to force a passage through. Obs.
| 13.. Coer de L. 5266 He gaff Richard a sory flatt, That foundryd bacynet and hat. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1725) 183 And whan he was withinne, & fauht as a wilde leon, He fondred þe Sarazins otuynne & fauht as a dragon. |
† 2. To send to the bottom, cause to be swallowed up or engulfed. Obs.
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1014 Þis watz a uengeaunce violent þat voyded þise places, Þat foundered hatz so fayr a folk & þe folde sonkken. 1490 Caxton Eneydos xxvii. 97 Haue no mercy..of ony man that lyueth, foundre & droune altogider [F. effondres tout] in-to the botome of the sea. |
3. intr. Of the earth, a building, etc.: To fall down, give way.
| 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. ii. xxxv. 153 The toure foundred and sanke doune in to the grounde. a 1697 Aubrey Wilts. (Royal Soc. MS.) 106 (Halliw.) A quantity of earth foundred and fell downe a vast depth. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 274 We find that the cliffs of Bawdsey and Felixtow are foundering slowly. |
† b. trans. To undermine. Also fig. Obs.
| 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. iii. iv. §13 King John having his soul battered without, with forrain fears, and foundred with⁓in by the falsenesse of his Subjects, sunk on a sudden beneath himself. a 1656 Ussher Ann. v. (1658) 60 The river..foundering the wall thereof 20 furlongs in length, bare it down. |
4. intr. (Chiefly of a horse or its rider.) To stumble violently, fall helplessly to the ground, collapse; to fall lame; occas. to sink or stick fast (in mire or bog).
| c 1386 Chaucer Knt's. T. 1829 For which his hors for feere gan to turne, And leep asyde, and foundred as he leep. c 1450 Golagros & Gaw. 1022 As he loutit our ane bra, His feit founderit hym fra. 1513 Douglas æneis x. xiv. 157 Down swakkis the knycht sone with a fellon fayr, Foundris fordwart flatlingis on hys spald. c 1560 A. Scott Poems (S.T.S.) ii. 163 To grund, for fersness, he did funder. 1563 Homilies ii. Rogation Week iv. (1859) 498 Where⁓by thy poor nyghbour, sitting on his seelly weak beast, foundereth not in the deep thereof. 1713 Steele Guard. No. 132 ¶6 The man is a thick-skull'd puppy, and founders like a horse. 1875 F. Hall in Lippincott's Mag. XVI. 749/1 The guide had strayed off the ford, and I was foundering in a quicksand. 1880 Muirhead Gaius iii. §219 When a man has..driven another's horse so hard as to cause it to founder. |
5. trans. To cause to break down or go lame; esp. to cause (a horse) to have the founder, thus disabling him.
| 1593 Nashe 4 Lett. Confut. 51 A broken-winded..Iade, that..now is quite foundred and tired. 1608 Yorksh. Trag. i. viii, O stumbling jade..Plague founder thee. 1674 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. i. (1677) 97 You will surbate or founder your Hounds. 1680 W. Hacke Collect. Voy. ii. (1699) 3 A very bad Path, which with our being necessitated to wade the River..almost foundred our Men. 1732 Gay Achilles 1, He will quite founder himself with galloping from place to place to look after me. 1884 W. C. Smith Kildrostan 74 She..rode my pony till she foundered him. |
b. fig.
| 1589 R. Harvey Pl. Perc. 18 Such firie Agues fall soonest into a surfeit, and founder themselues with their intemperate behauiour. 1645 Milton Colast. (1851) 365 Founder himself to and fro in his own objections. 1658 Bramhall Consecr. Bps. vi. 148 And so your Consequence..is foundered of all four, and can neither passe nor repasse. |
¶ c. Confused with found v.5: To benumb.
| 1562 [see found v.5]. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. xix. 342 The Oyle..is good..for members that are benummed or foundered. |
6. intr. Of a vessel: To fill with water and sink, go to the bottom. [= OF. s'enfondrer: cf. sense 2.]
| 1600 Hakluyt Voy. III. 398 Already she had receiued in much water, insomuch that she beganne to founder. 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. i, The seamen every now and then cried out she would founder. 1882 White Naval Archit. 13 Ships founder when the entry of water into the interior causes a serious and fatal loss of floating power. |
b. fig. To ‘come to grief’, be wrecked.
| 1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, iii. ii. 40 But in this point All his trickes founder. 1816 Keatinge Trav. (1817) I. 56 note, Spain began to founder from the loss of the Low Countries: but a first-rate ship does not go down like a wherry. |
7. trans. To cause (a ship) to fill with water and sink; to send to the bottom.
| 1659 D. Pell Impr. Sea 305 When a vessel is, or comes once to bee foundered, there is no possibility of her being helped up. [But this may be sense 6.] 1748 F. Smith Voy. Disc. I. 52 Capable of pierceing a Ship under her Bends, so foundering her. 1893 G. Allen Scallywag III. 110 A great ship was being foundered and ground to pieces by some invisible force within a few yards of them. |
8. Golf. To hit (a ball) into the ground.
| 1880 ‘Capt. Crawley’ Football, etc. 96 The young Golfer..is likely to founder the ball, or drive it only a comparatively short distance. |
¶ 9. erron. = Fr. fondre: To burst (into tears).
| c 1477 Caxton Jason 5 The damoiseau Jason..began thenne to foundre in teeris right habondantly. [Often in Caxton.] c 1530 Ld. Berners Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814) 51 The king foundred all in teeres. |
Hence ˈfoundering vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VI (an. 13) 127 Matthew Gouth, by founderyng of his horsse, was taken. 1602 Warner Alb. Eng. ix. liii. (1612) 238 No one thing quailes Religion more than foundring Presbytrie. 1614 Markham Cheap Husb. i. li. (1668) 62 Of Foundring in the Feet there be two sorts, a dry and a wet. 1802 C. James Milit. Dict. s.v., Foundering in the feet..Foundering in the chest. 1813 Scott Rokeby i. xvii, Rescued from our foundering skiff. |