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Fizzle   Listen
verb
fizzle  v. i.  (past & past part. fizzled; pres. part. fizzling)  
1.
To make a hissing sound. "It is the easiest thing, sir, to be done, As plain as fizzling."
2.
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.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Fizzle" Quotes from Famous Books



... he'll make a fizzle of it," said the skinny creature, "and there's no telling what that terrible King might do to the poor Scarecrow, who seems like a very interesting person. So I believe I'll take a ...
— The Scarecrow of Oz • L. Frank Baum

... ran in. "Fairy wants to know if you are getting stage fright, Lark? My, you do look nice! Now, for goodness' sake, Lark, remember the parsonage, and don't make a fizzle of it." ...
— Prudence Says So • Ethel Hueston

... its wordy strife And futile fuss are fading out in "fizzle." They talk a deal about their "planes of life," 'Tis plain to me the fitter term ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 101. October 24, 1891 • Various

... However, it must have been about right, for the Times article was in the spirit I wished to arouse. I hope we can get rid of the man before it is too late. He has set the natives to war; but the natives, by God's blessing, do not want to fight, and I think it will fizzle out—no thanks to the man who tried to start it. But I did not mean to drift into these politics; rather to tell you what I have done ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 25 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... flowers, and there's nothing I should enjoy more than watching them. But I can't. Get me on that machine, and I have to go. Get me on anything, and I have to go. And I don't want to go a bit. WHY should a man rush about like a rocket, all pace and fizzle? Why? It makes me furious. I can assure you, sir, I go scorching along the road, and cursing aloud at myself for doing it. A quiet, dignified, philosophical man, that's what I am—at bottom; and here I am dancing with rage ...
— The Wheels of Chance - A Bicycling Idyll • H. G. Wells

... the sun-god had turned cook, and now, burning with 'prentice zeal, and scoffing at Duespeptos and all sound hygiene, was aiming to make of this terrestrial ball one illimitable fry turned over and well done,—a fry ever doing and never done, which should simmer and fizzle on eternally down the ages. An abstract fry—let me here record it—suits me passing well; yet I like not the concrete and personal broil. I trip gayly to a feast, prepared to eat, but not, as in the supper of Polonius, ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 85, November, 1864 • Various

... "Of course it'll fizzle out in places and we'll come to villages, but there's enough woods ahead of us for us to go twenty miles tonight. That's the way it ...
— Tom Slade with the Boys Over There • Percy K. Fitzhugh

... —instead of getting his lessons he drew pictures, and thirty years ago such conduct was proof of total depravity. Like the amateur blacksmith who started to make a horseshoe and finally contented himself with a fizzle, the Abbeys gave up theology and law, and decided that if Edwin became a good printer it would be enough. And then, how often printers became writers—then editors and finally proprietors! Edwin might yet own the "Ledger" and have a collection ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 6 - Subtitle: Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Artists • Elbert Hubbard

... the tumpline and the paddle, Of secret rivers loitering, that no one will explore; And I tell them of the ranges, of the pack-strap and the saddle, And they fill their pipes in silence, and their eyes beseech for more; While above the star-shells fizzle and the high ...
— Rhymes of a Red Cross Man • Robert W. Service

... demagogues. They are willing to pander to the liquor interests, or anything else—no matter how low and demoralizing it may be—if it only helps them to power. I understood what he was at. He said to Mr. Martin, 'I told you it would end in a fizzle;' and then continued talking to him in a similar strain for some time: and when he was through, the latter said 'he thought he was about right.' But you know as well as I do, Mr. Gurney, that Martin is weak, ...
— From Wealth to Poverty • Austin Potter

... again," the young reporter thought as he strolled out into the street. "I'll never have such luck again. If he watches the house after this he'll do it in a way that won't give me a chance to catch him. Well, I've got to go back and tell Grace I made a fizzle of it. Too bad, when they're hoping so much on the ...
— Larry Dexter's Great Search - or, The Hunt for the Missing Millionaire • Howard R. Garis

... own head—must grow it out of the materials supplied. If it doesn't do that it's a failure, and the Big Idea will end in being the Big Fizzle. That's why I'm leaving it so severely alone—I want to ...
— Dennison Grant - A Novel of To-day • Robert Stead

... there was such an atmosphere of mutual confidence and good fellowship everywhere,—even the knives and forks had a social clatter as they went on to the table; and the chicken and ham had a cheerful and joyous fizzle in the pan, as if they rather enjoyed being cooked than otherwise;—and when George and Eliza and little Harry came out, they met such a hearty, rejoicing welcome, no wonder it seemed to them like ...
— Uncle Tom's Cabin • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... of the Fenian leaders was killed in the late Frontier Fizzle, yet many of them are reported as being badly wounded—as to their feelings. General O'NEIL'S feelings are dreadfully hurt by the ignominy of a constable and a cell, which was a bad Cell for a Celt. The feelings of General GLEASON (and they must be multitudinous, since he is nearly seven feet ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 11, June 11, 1870 • Various

... and will get over it. But Johnny, please do be a good boy now and don't make us any more trouble. I am sure I never dreamed what you had in mind, but I would have married you since we started to, but now it is perfectly odious to have it turn out such a fizzle, with you in jail and I being preached at every waking moment by dad and mommie. If you had only kept your temper and waited until dad and mommie got here, I am sure we would be married by now, because I could have made them give their consent and be present at the ...
— The Thunder Bird • B. M. Bower

... opportunity—a chance to substitute success for failure, to make good at a different kind of work. It is in this light that you must try and regard it, son. I want to make a man of you if I can. I must make a man of you. You are the only child I have, and if I stand by and allow you to make a fizzle of your life I shall be quite as much to blame as you. Remember that unhappy as you are this affair is ...
— The Story of Leather • Sara Ware Bassett

... nephelognosy^; nephograph^, nephology^. effervescence, fermentation; bubbling &c v.. nebula; cloudliness &c (opacity) 426 [Obs.]; nebulosity &c (dimness) 422. V. bubble, boil, foam, froth, mantle, sparkle, guggle^, gurgle; effervesce, ferment, fizzle. Adj. bubbling &c v.; frothy, nappy^, effervescent, sparkling, mousseux [Fr.], frothy [Fr.Tr.], up. cloudy &c n.; thunderheaded^; vaporous, nebulous, overcast. Phr. the lowring element scowls o'er ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... heart, but there wasn't no excuse for that driver to stand up on his hind legs, close his eyes, and throw thirty foot of lash into that plunging buckin', white-eyed mess. When he did it, all the little words inside of me began to foam and fizzle like sedlitz; out they came, biting, in mouthfuls, and streams, and squirts, backwards, sideways, and ...
— Pardners • Rex Beach

... ought to receive," he said, with surly grimace. "Here I've got to go and look up some one else, and she made the performance fizzle out to-night, besides being a deal of trouble all along with her ...
— Six Girls - A Home Story • Fannie Belle Irving

... freen the noo! to gang down the wynd, an' find if it war but an auld Abraham o' a blue-gown, wi' a bit crowd, or a fizzle-pipe, to play me the Bush aboon Traquair! Na, na, na; it's singing the Lord's song in a strange land, that wad be; an' I hope the application's no irreverent, for ane that was rearit amang the hills o' God, an' the trees o' the ...
— Alton Locke, Tailor And Poet • Rev. Charles Kingsley et al



Words linked to "Fizzle" :   dud, failure, hissing, hiss, turkey, bust, peter out, flop, sibilation, discontinue, taper off, fizzle out, hushing



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