FIZZLE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.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

... are not!" he blazed back. "I may have admired the woman in you—but, for those things, you have not the smallest atom of ability. Your father's trial, your failure to get evidence—hasn't that shown you? You are going to be a failure—a fizzle—a fiasco! Did you hear that? A pitiable, miserable, humiliated fiasco! And time will ...

— Counsel for the Defense • Leroy Scott

... Pinkerton," I would say. "You look to the result, you want to see some profit of your endeavours: that is why you could never learn to paint, if you lived to be Methusalem. The result is always a fizzle: the eyes of the artist are turned in; he lives for a frame of mind. Look at Romney now. There is the nature of the artist. He hasn't a cent; and if you offered him to-morrow the command of an army, or the ...

— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 13 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... 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

... wanted to see Lucy 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 have dropped ...

— The Monk of Hambleton • Armstrong Livingston

... citizens, had issued orders that a battery of artillery, a company of engineers, with the 2nd Battalion, 17th Regiment, be held in readiness to proceed to St. Andrews as soon as transport was available. We did not expect anything but a fizzle. However, it was a change, and, I may ...

— A Soldier's Life - Being the Personal Reminiscences of Edwin G. Rundle • Edwin G. Rundle

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