Floundered [verb]

Companies with healthy balance sheets will be on the lookout for smaller upstarts and floundering rivals they can scoop up.

Last summer, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson floundered while responding to the pandemic, Sunak arranged direct wage subsidies and has become the skinny-suited face of the country’s fiscal policy.

The Cockalorum pondered over this for a moment, and then murmuring, "I prefer croquet," floundered away through the waving grass.

At last the lascar rose and floundered through the mud toward the village, but he was careful to leave an ally to watch the boats.

Occasionally the horses floundered over smooth rocks and were nearly carried away.

Walking, half awake, Ida floundered among the boulders and through a horrible maze of whitened driftwood cast up by the stream.

He floundered aimlessly, striving by short sallies to recover the path from which the storm had taken him, but all to no purpose.

As Matt floundered to his feet, the girl toppled into his arms—and the horse jerked loose and went on.

The frost got more rigorous, drying the snow to a dusty powder in which Festing's lumber gang floundered awkwardly.

His feet slipped on the icy trail, and the horses floundered, but they knew the danger and broke into a clumsy trot.