flounder
A flounder is a flat fish with both eyes on one side of its head; and, as a verb, to flounder is to wobble around like a fish out of water.
To flounder is to be unsteady or uncertain. It's probably from the Dutch word flodderen, "to flop about," or it's a mix of founder ("to fail") and blunder ("do something clumsy"). If you flounder in the ocean, you need a surfer dude to scoop you up. You don't have to be in water, though; you can flounder any time you're a little wobbly — like after a long hike or during the last hour of the SATs. Either way, when you flounder, you wish you were a flat fish at the bottom of the sea.
Usage Examples
Meir Katz, a colossus, wore a child’s pants, and Stern, a skinny little fellow, was floundering in a huge jacket.
“Do you really think I look like a flounder?”
Still shrilling on the whistle, he fought and floundered against the tide of the crowd.
He bought three flounders from the man for a quarter.
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