▪ I. fizzle, n.
(ˈfɪz(ə)l)
[f. next vb.]
1. a. The action of breaking wind quietly.
| 1598 Florio, Sloffa, a fizzle, a fiste, a close farte. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Fizzle, a little or low-sounding Fart. 1739 R. Bull tr. Dedekindus' Grobianus 208 Now let a Fizzle steal in Silence forth. 1836–48 B. D. Walsh Aristoph. Knights ii. iv, And then in court they poisoned one another with their fizzles. |
b. The action of hissing or sputtering.
| 1842 Barham Ingold. Leg., Auto-da-Fé, Whose beards..Are smoking, and curling, and all in a fizzle. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xiii. 118 The chicken and ham had a cheerful and joyous fizzle in the pan. |
2. A failure or fiasco; U.S. college slang, a failure in recitation or examination. Also with out.
| 1846 Yale Banger 10 Nov. in Hall Coll. Words & Cust. (1851) 130 To get just one third of the meaning right constitutes a perfect fizzle. 1861 O. W. Norton Army Lett. (1903) 23 The Erie Regiment is one grand fizzle out. 1884 L'pool Daily Post 13 Sept. 5/7 The affair will be a simple fizzle. 1958 Spectator 8 Aug. 185/2 A Suez-type fizzle-out. |
▪ II. fizzle, v.
(ˈfɪz(ə)l)
Also 6 fysel(l, 7 fisle.
[f. fise: see -le. Cf. also fizz and fissle.]
† 1. a. intr. To break wind without noise. Obs.
| c 1532 G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 957 Uencr to fysel. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 286 As for Onopordon, they say if Asses eat thereof, they will fall a fizling and farting. 1711 E. Ward Quix. I. 415 He gap'd and fizzl'd twice or thrice. 1739 R. Bull tr. Dedekindus' Grobianus 268 To fart and fizzle in the Time of Need. |
b. quasi-trans. (with cognate obj.)
| 1721 D'Urfey Two Queens Brentford Epil., I fizzle such small puffs of Wind. |
2. intr. To make a hissing sound; to hiss or sputter (as a wet combustible, or a fire-work).
| 1859 All Year Round No. 36, 222 The black oil fizzles. 1881 Daily News 7 Nov. 5/1 Unambitious rockets which fizzle doggedly downwards. |
3. fig. a. intr. (chiefly U.S. colloq.) To fail, make a fiasco, come to a lame conclusion; in U.S. college slang, to fail in a recitation or examination. Also, to fizzle away, fizzle out. b. trans. U.S. college slang. To cause (a person) to fail in examination, or the like.
| 1847 Yale Banger 22 Oct. in Hall Coll. Words & Cust. (1851) 130 My dignity is outraged at beholding those who fizzle and flunk in my presence tower above me. a 1848 Cincinnati Gaz. (Bartlett), The factious and revolutionary action of the fifteen has..disgraced the actors, and fizzled out! 1850 Yale Lit. Mag. XIII. 321 Ibid. 131 Fizzle him tenderly, Bore him with care. 1854 Olympia (Wash.) Pioneer 15 Apr. (Th.), The Stellacoom gold excitement has entirely fizzled out. 1866 Richmond Enquirer (De Vere), The enterprise fizzled out in the most contemptible manner. 1878 Cumbld. Gloss., Fizzle, to work busily but ineffectively. 1884 Melbourne Punch 4 Sept. 98/2 Another of Mr. Mirams' pet fads has fizzled ignominiously out. 1893 Sat. Rev. 11 Nov. 538/2 A general recognition by the Chicagoans that their show had to some extent fizzled. 1910 R. Brooke Coll. Poems (1928) Mem. p. li, I've several times started to write to you a notable..letter, but my life has been too jerky to admit of much connected thought lately, so the letter always fizzled away. |
Hence ˈfizzling vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1616 B. Jonson Devil an Ass v. iii, It is the easiest thing, Sir, to be done As plain as fizzling. 1638 Brome Antipodes iii. iv, Fah on your passages, Your windy workings, and your fislings at The barre. 1758 Gray Lett. Wks. 1884 II. 368 That old fizzling Duke is coming here again. 1815 tr. Paris Chit-Chat (1816) II. 22 The fizzling of the bacon she was frying. 1893 A. Walters Lotos Eater vii. 157 The more complicated set pieces..lay in a fizzling, sputtering, snorting heap. |
▪ III. fizzle
var. of fissle.