FIZZLE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Fizzle

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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.)

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Etymology of 'Fizzle'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Fizzle" Quotes from Famous Books

... oracle. I suppose this is inevitable as soon as one goes into print; and Phelps has gone into print in the local papers. He has been bitten with the literary "git up." Justly regarding most of the Adirondack literature as a "perfect fizzle," he has himself projected a work, and written much on the natural history of his region. Long ago he made a large map of the mountain country; and, until recent surveys, it was the only one that could lay any claim to accuracy. His history is no doubt original in form, and unconventional ...

— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner

... asking questions like that you've got to be ready to run. And if it fizzles out you've lost all chance of coming back for a second try. That could fizzle out because they simply deny the validity of ...

— Cubs of the Wolf • Raymond F. Jones

... sold. Burke bought two of these at this 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 a time seemed ...

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

... second.—The Reverend Alonzo Fizzle had preached his farewell-sermon to his disconsolate people in Drowsytown. The next morning, Monday, he was strolling musingly along a silent road among the melancholy woods. The pastor of a neighboring ...

— Atlantic Monthly Volume 6, No. 37, November, 1860 • Various

... a fairly good accountant; no rich man's son, but some one who has had a chance to observe life. Make him a buffer between Mrs. Killigrew and the whining cheats. And above all, no young man who has social entree to your house. That kind of a private secretary is always a fizzle." ...

— The Voice in the Fog • Harold MacGrath

... core, Marjorie's faith in her chum refused to die. The Mary she had known for so many years had not been lacking in honor. What she had feared from the first had come to pass. Mary had been swayed by Mignon's baleful personality. The much-talked-of reform had ended in a glaring fizzle. ...

— Marjorie Dean - High School Sophomore • Pauline Lester

... talking," he said. "They ought to have rushed the jail first pop. Now the whole thing will fizzle out slowly. Let's ...

— The Gray Dawn • Stewart Edward White

... him by one of the trucks of fuel on the rail. The gesticulating figure was bright and white in the moonlight, and shouting, "Fizzle, you fool! Fizzle, you hunter of women! You hot-blooded hound! ...

— The Door in the Wall And Other Stories • H. G. Wells

Words linked to "Fizzle" : bust, bomb, peter out, taper off, dud, turkey, failure