Word.ws English Dictionary

fizzle

UK/ˈfɪzəl/

fizzle verb: to sputter or hiss.

Verb

fizzle (third-person singular simple present fizzles, present participle fizzling, simple past and past participle fizzled)

  1. To sputter or hiss.
    • The soda fizzled for several minutes after it was poured.
    • It is the easest thing, sir, to be done, / As plain as fizzling.1616, Ben Jonson, The Devil Is an Ass
  2. (figuratively, informal) To decay or die off to nothing; to burn out; to end less successfully than previously hoped.
    • The entire project fizzled after the founder quit.
    • I had a suspicion that Stephanie's native ingenuity rather fizzled there. You know, Stephanie dear, there is a difference, it seems, between Bombay and Californian pearls.1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados
  3. To fail to generate the expected yield when exploded during testing.
    • The shot fizzled, generating only 200 tons rather than the 30 kilotons they were aiming for.

Noun

fizzle (plural fizzles)

  1. A spluttering or hissing sound.
  2. Failure of an exploding nuclear bomb to meet its expected yield during testing.
  3. An abortive effort; a flop or dud.
  4. A state of agitation or worry.

fizzle meaning in Tamil and Malayalam

fizzle in Tamil

பிசுபிசுத்துப் போ, தோல்வியுறு, தோல்வி

fizzle in Malayalam

crackle, buzz, hiss
ശൂൽക്കാരം പുറപ്പെടുവിക്കുക, ഇരയ്ക്കുക, എരയ്ക്കുക, മുരളുക, കിറുകിറുക്കുക, പടപടശബ്ദമുണ്ടാക്കുക
fizz, sparkle, effervescence
ശൂൽക്കാരം, സീൽക്കാരം, ശൂത്കാരം, ഫൂൽക്കാരം, ചീറ്റൽ, നുരയ്ക്കൽ
debacle, failure, fiasco
ചീറ്റിപ്പോകൽ, ഭംഗം, നിഷ്ഫലയത്നം, ഫലഭംഗം, വൻപരാജയം, നാണംകെട്ട തോൽവി

Forms of fizzle

Verb
third-person singular presentfizzles
present participlefizzling
past participlefizzled
pastfizzled
Noun
pluralfizzles

Past tense of fizzle: fizzled

Origin of fizzle

Attested in English since 1525-35. From earlier fysel (“to fart”). Related to fīsa (“to fart”). Compare with Swedish fisa (“to fart (silently)”). See also feist. It could also come from old Norse: "fise" simply means "blow," like in "blow in the wind." A weather-exposed community in Rogaland, Norway, is called Fister. (In modern language, the verb "fisle" has the same 3 meanings as in English, see below.)

Words formed from fizzle

Words that rhyme with fizzle

Questions about fizzle

What does fizzle mean?
Fizzle means to sputter or hiss.
What is fizzle in Tamil?
Fizzle in Tamil is பிசுபிசுத்துப் போ, தோல்வியுறு, தோல்வி. See Fizzle meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is fizzle?
Fizzle can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce fizzle?
Fizzle is pronounced /ˈfɪzəl/ (UK).
What is the past tense of fizzle?
The past tense of fizzle is fizzled.

Words near fizzle in the dictionary

  1. fizziness
  2. fizzing
  3. fizzing out
  4. fizzingly
  5. fizzings
  6. fizzle
  7. fizzle out
  8. fizzled
  9. fizzled out
  10. fizzler
  11. fizzlers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fizzle (page history and authors); fizzle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fizzle (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-fizzle.ogg, en-au-fizzle.ogg.

Cite this entry: “fizzle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fizzle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.