English
founder
Pronunciation
  • (America) IPA: /ˈfaʊn.dɚ/
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈfaʊn.də/
Etymology 1

From , from , equivalent to found + -er.

Noun

founder (plural founders)

  1. One who founds or establishes (a company, project, organisation, state, etc.).
    Antonyms: ruiner
    The founder of Facebook is Mark Zuckerberg.
    • 1765, William Blackstone, “Of Corporations”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book I (Of the Rights of Persons), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC ↗, page 469 ↗:
      As to eleemoſynary corporations, by the dotation the founder and his heirs are of common right the legal viſitors, to ſee that that property is rightly employed, which would otherwiſe have deſcended to the viſitor himſelf: […]
    • 2022 January 13, Arielle Pardes, “Who Do Young Entrepreneurs Look Up To? Elon Musk”, in Wired‎[https://web.archive.org/web/20230601001348/https://www.wired.com/story/young-entrepreneurs-elon-musk/], San Francisco, C.A.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN ↗, →OCLC ↗, archived from the original ↗ on 2023-06-01:
      Young people love to idolize their predecessors. [Steve] Jobs was Silicon Valley's idol of choice for decades, but to the next generation of startup founders, his legacy feels about as old as Web 1.0.
    • 2023 June 28, Livia Albeck-Ripka, “Chris Printup, Founder of Streetwear Brand Born X Raised, Dies at 42”, in The New York Times‎[https://web.archive.org/web/20230706014212/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/28/us/chris-printup-spanto-dead.html], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN ↗, →OCLC ↗, archived from the original ↗ on 2023-07-06:
      Chris Printup, a founder of the streetwear brand Born X Raised, which became a fixture on the Los Angeles fashion scene, died on Wednesday morning at a hospital in Albuquerque. He was 42.
  2. (genetics) A common ancestor of some population (especially one with a certain genetic mutation).
    a founder population
    the founder effect
    • 2006 June 1, Dennis Drayna, “Founder Mutations”, in Scientific American‎[https://web.archive.org/web/20230607045246/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/founder-mutations-2006-06/], New York, N.Y.: Springer Nature America, Inc., →ISSN ↗, →OCLC ↗, archived from the original ↗ on 2023-06-07:
      The sickle cell mutation today can be found in five different haplotypes, leading to the conclusion that the mutation appeared independently five times in five different founders.
    • 2019 April 16, Heather Murphy, “Don’t Count on 23andMe to Detect Most Breast Cancer Risks, Study Warns”, in The New York Times‎[https://web.archive.org/web/20221013203509/http://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/16/health/23andme-brca-gene-testing.html], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN ↗, →OCLC ↗, archived from the original ↗ on 2022-10-13:
      Among the Ashkenazi Jews in the positive group, 81 percent had one of the three founder mutations, suggesting that 23andMe's test could be helpful for them.
    • 2023 March 16, Nadeem Badshah, “One in a hundred people with Orkney heritage have gene increasing risk of cancer”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎[https://web.archive.org/web/20230805085630/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/mar/16/one-in-a-hundred-people-with-orkney-heritage-have-gene-increasing-risk-of-cancer], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN ↗, →OCLC ↗, archived from the original ↗ on 2023-08-05:
      The gene mutation is likely to have come from a founder individual who lived at least 250 years ago, the paper published in the European Journal of Human Genetics said.
Translations Translations Etymology 2

From , from .

Noun

founder (plural founders)

  1. The iron worker in charge of the blast furnace and the smelting operation.
    • 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 161:
      The term 'founder' was applied in the British iron industry long afterwards to the ironworker in charge of the blast furnace and the smelting operation.
  2. One who casts metals in various forms; a caster.
    a founder of cannon, bells, hardware, or printing types
Translations Translations Etymology 3

From , from .

Noun

founder (plural founders)

  1. (veterinary medicine) A severe laminitis of a horse, caused by untreated internal inflammation in the hooves.
Translations Verb

founder (founders, present participle foundering; simple past and past participle foundered)

  1. (intransitive, of a ship) To flood with water and sink.
    • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC ↗:
      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.
    • 1851 November 13, Herman Melville, chapter 9, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC ↗:
      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;(...)
  2. (intransitive) To fall; to stumble and go lame, as a horse.
  3. (intransitive) To fail; to miscarry.
    • 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), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:
      All his tricks founder.
  4. (transitive, archaic, nautical) To cause to flood and sink, as a ship.
    • 1697, William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World. […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC ↗, page 82 ↗:
      We found a strong Tide setting out of the Streights to the Northward, and like to founder our Ship.
    • 1744, William Smith, A New Voyage to Guinea, page 167, quoted in The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds Of The Slave Trade, Robert Harms, 2008
      "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 […] "
    • 1932, Hart Crane, "From haunts of Proserpine" (Review of Green River: A Poem for Rafinesque, James Whaler
      But still more disastrous was the storm which foundered his ship in Long Island Sound, swallowing within call of shore his fifty boxes of scientific equipment, his books, manuscripts and funds, the results of years of devoted labor.
  5. (transitive) To disable or lame (a horse) by causing internal inflammation and soreness in the feet or limbs.
Translations Translations Translations

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