FIZZLE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Fizzle

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/fˈɪzəl/ Listen

verb

fizzle v. i. (past & past part. fizzled; pres. part. fizzling)

To make a hissing sound. "It is the easiest thing, sir, to be done, As plain as fizzling."

To make a ridiculous failure in an undertaking, especially after a good start; to achieve nothing. (Colloq. or Low) "A four-day rally in stocks fizzled yesterday amid renewed fears that strong economic growth may prompt the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates."

To fizzle out, to burn with a hissing noise and then go out, like wet gunpowder; hence: to fail completely and ridiculously; to prove a failure. (Colloq.)

noun

fizzle n. A failure or abortive effort; a fiasco. (Colloq.)

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Etymology of 'Fizzle'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Fizzle" Quotes from Famous Books

... again, and if this stupid business of dying had to be gone through I wanted to do it here in this old house. I wanted a few weeks or months of peace and quiet and h-happiness." Her voice broke, then steadied again. "Golly—what a fizzle!" She shivered. "This afternoon I got my—notice! How I wished you were here! I came up to my room, burned that diary—you snooped just in time, Peter!—and wrote two letters. I didn't dare leave the house to mail them. I might ...

— The Monk of Hambleton • Armstrong Livingston

... send round my man to-morrow morning at eight o'clock.... You may sleep in peace. And I hope, in the first place, that you will get better, and make charming music for us again; and yet, after all, you see, life is very dreary—managers chisel you, and kings mizzle and ministers fizzle and rich fold economizzle.—Artists have nothing left here" (tapping her breast)—"it is a time to ...

— Cousin Pons • Honore de Balzac

... gets everybody," he said. Isabelle felt no inclination to discuss with Cairy her talk about neurasthenia and religion. So their chatter drifted from the people they had seen to Cairy himself, his last play, "which was a rank fizzle," and the plan of the new one. One got on fast and far with Cairy, if one were a woman and felt his charm. By the time they had reached the hotel, he was counselling Isabelle most wisely how she should settle herself ...

— Together • Robert Herrick (1868-1938)

... place for fifteenpence, and began cooking them in a somewhat peculiar manner, being either too hungry or too impatient to cook them properly by boiling. What he did was to put them on the fire to fizzle just as they came from the butcher, not even cleaning them, or taking any of the hair off; and every now and then he would gnaw the portion off that he thought was done, in order to get the underdone part closer to the fire. In this way he finished both the hocks, and for ...

— The Autobiography of Sergeant William Lawrence - A Hero of the Peninsular and Waterloo Campaigns • William Lawrence

... without displaying the least concern. "Wal, I don't know. Y' see this thing's li'ble to fizzle some. We've had 'em before. Guess my missis an' the gal'll stay right here by us. I 'low I feel they're safer wi' us. Mebbe it's jest a notion. If things gits hummin' I'd say come right along over an' share in wi' us. Y' see if it's a case of git, we'd likely ...

— The Watchers of the Plains - A Tale of the Western Prairies • Ridgewell Cullum

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