All 5 Uses of
founder
in
The Scarlet Letter
- The founders of the greater part of the families which now compose the aristocracy of Salem might here be traced, from the petty and obscure beginnings of their traffic, at periods generally much posterior to the Revolution, upward to what their children look upon as long-established rank.†
Chpt Intr. (definition 1)
- ...reading the names of vessels that had long ago foundered at sea or rotted at the wharves,
Chpt Intr. (definition 2)foundered = failed; or sank
- The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognised it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison.†
Chpt 1 (definition 1)
- She made little boats out of birch-bark, and freighted them with snailshells, and sent out more ventures on the mighty deep than any merchant in New England; but the larger part of them foundered near the shore.
Chpt 15 (definition 2) *foundered = sank
- The fathers and founders of the commonwealth——the statesman, the priest, and the soldier——seemed it a duty then to assume the outward state and majesty, which, in accordance with antique style, was looked upon as the proper garb of public and social eminence.†
Chpt 21 (definition 1) *
Definitions:
-
(1) (founder as in: a founder of the company) someone who establishes or starts something
-
(2) (founder as in: peace talks foundered) to fail or break-down
or:
to physically sink below the surface or fall