▪ I. fizz, fiz, n. colloq.
(fɪz)
Also 8 phiz.
[f. next vb. Cf. the earlier fise.]
1. A hissing sound.
| 1812 J. & H. Smith Rejected Addr. 69 The water when he was baptized gave a fizz. 1842 S. Lover Handy Andy i, Every fizz it [the soda-water] made. 1855 O. W. Holmes Poems 177 No rubbing will kindle your Lucifer match If the fiz does not follow the primitive scratch. 1870 Thornbury Tour Eng. II. xxx. 268 A palpable devil..flew off in a fizz of fire. |
2. a. A disturbance, fuss.
| a 1734 North Exam. i. ii. §83 (1740) 74 What a Phiz of a Scandal is here upon the King. 1804 W. Tarras Poems 107 ‘Douce wife’, quoth I, ‘what means the fizz?’ |
b. Animal spirits or ‘go’.
| 1856 Mrs. Stowe Dred. I. xvii. 235 Just enough fizz in her to keep one from flatting out. 1884 Pall Mall G. 2 Apr. 5 Mr Little has fizz and go enough to make excellent capital out of a broomstick. |
3. a. concr. Something that fizzes; an effervescing drink, esp. champagne. Also any alcoholic or non-alcoholic effervescing drink.
| 1864 Punch XLVII. 100 We..ordered some fizz. 1879 E. K. Bates Egyptian Bonds II. ix. 226 Let's have a bottle of fiz, old fellow. 1889 Cent. Dict., Fizz, fiz,..a light frothy liquid; specifically, in the United States, soda-water or other effervescent water. 1891 Gin fiz [see gin n.2 2]. 1906 Mrs. Beeton Househ. Managem. xlviii. 1512 Silver fizz,..1 wineglass of gin, the juice of ½ a lemon, the white of 1 egg, 1 teaspoonful of icing sugar, a pinch of carbonate of soda, pounded ice. 1942 V. M. Cottrell Lost Cave of Pukerangi ix. 81 A bottle of ‘fizz’ each. 1955 G. Freeman Liberty Man i. i. 17 I'll 'ave a coke... No I won't, I'll 'ave a raspberry fizz. 1958 A. L. Simon Dict. Wines 76/2 Fizzes, American ‘long’ drinks made up of various kinds of spirits and some sugar or syrup..served in tall glasses which are then filled with a syphon. |
b. fizzbang = whizz-bang n. 1.
| 1916 ‘Boyd Cable’ Action Front 67 He has a confused memory..of drumming rifle fire..and, then, immediately after, the rush and crash of a couple of German ‘Fizz-Bang’ shells. Ibid. 186 This cellar roof is too thin to stop an ordinary Fizzbang. |
Add: 4. Special Comb. fizz-boat N.Z. colloq., a motor boat or speedboat.
| 1977 Daily Tel. 24 Feb. 19/7 The water was like glass as the Royal barge came in, chased by speedboats, ‘*fizz boats’—the New Zealand name for outboards. 1984 Metro (Auckland) Jan. 15/2 There are everyman's little fizz-boat to the great petrol guzzling twin 200 horsepower outboard motor driven racing machines. |
▪ II. fizz, fiz, v.
(fɪz)
[Echoic; cf. fizzle v.]
a. intr. To make a hissing or sputtering sound.
| 1685 Crowne Sir Courtly Nice 111, I kiss'd all the wenches as I came along, and made their moyst lips fiz again. 1687 Cotton Burlesque upon B. (ed. 2) 136 Thou oft hast made thy fiery Dart Fizz in the hollow of his heart. 1786 Burns Scotch Drink 57 O rare! to see thee fizz an' freath I' th' lugget caup. 1827 Praed Red Fisherm. 213 And the water fizzed as it tumbled in! 1839 Marryat Diary Amer. Ser. i. I. 286 Some black fellow..brings out the leather hose..and fizzes away with it till the stream has forced the dust into the gutter. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. v. (1889) 38 His host put the kettle on the fire..and then, as it spluttered and fizzed, filled up the two tumblers. |
b. To move with a fizzing sound.
| 1864 Reader 3 Dec. 707/2 The bluebottle..fizzes fussily into some poor man's cottage. 1880 Sir S. Lakeman What I saw in Kaffir-Land 48 Up and down the lines he used to fizz with his fat podgy legs. |
c. trans. (causal.)
| 1665 Cotton Scarron. æn. iv. 80 There will I stand with flaming taper, To Fizze thy tail instead of paper. |
d. Also with out. Cf. fizzle v. 3.
| 1847 Punch 4 Sept. 87/2 Jenny Lind..has created a fureur, but it has fizzed out. 1941 Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 29 Fizz out on, to let down, fail in a promise. |
Hence ˈfizzing vbl. n.
| 1842 C. Whitehead R. Savage (1845) II. iv. 217 Such a roaring, and fizzing, and chuckling. 1877 Wraxall Hugo's Misérables iv. xxv. 15 The children heard the phizzing of a match. |