Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FOUND, v.t. [L. fundo, fundare; Fr. foader; It. fondare; Sp. fundar; Ir. bun, stump, bottom, stock, origin; bunadhu, bunait, foundation. If n is radical in found, as I suppose, it seems to be the Ar. بَنَا bana, Heb. Ch. בנה, to build, that is, to set, found, erect. Class Bn, No. 7.]

1. To lay the basis of any thing; to set, or place, as on something solid for support. It fell not, for it was founded on a rock. Matth. vii.
2. To begin and build; to lay the foundation, and raise a superstructure; as, to found a city.
3. To set or place; to establish, as on something solid or durable; as, to found a government on principles of liberty.
4. To begin to form or lay the basis; as, to found a college or a library. Sometimes to endow is equivalent to found.
5. To give birth to; to originate; as, to found an art or a family.
6. To set; to place; to establish on a basis. Christianity is founded on the rock of ages. Dominion is sometimes founded on conquest, sometimes on choice or voluntary consent. Power, founded on contract, can descend only to him who has right by that contract. Locke.
7. To fix firmly. I had else been perfect / Whole as the marble, founded as the rock. Shak.