FLOUNDER

[verb] [I] - to experience great difficulties or be completely unable to decide what to do or say nextHe lost the next page of his speech and floundered for a few seconds.Yet even as his business was flourishing, his marriage to Lynne was floundering. [I]In 1986 Richardson resigned as chairman, leaving the company floundering.As Bundy claimed more and more victims the police floundered (around) in their search for clues.He floundered (around) in the deep water, trying desperately to reach the bank.