The Collaborative International Dictionary
fizzle \fiz"zle\ (f[i^]z"z'l), v. i. [imp. & p. p. fizzled (f[i^]z"z'ld); p. pr. & vb. n. fizzling (f[i^]z"zl[i^]ng).]
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To make a hissing sound.
It is the easiest thing, sir, to be done, As plain as fizzling.
--B. Jonson. -
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.
--Sharon R. King (N. Y. Times, May 6, 1998).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.]
Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of fizzle English)
Usage examples of "fizzling".
The Chicago scientists were blaming the repeated fizzling of their uranium reactor on the graphite, demanding purer stuff.
He held a glass of gently fizzling amber liquid and a slim cigar in his left hand and pushed open the door with his right.
Somewhere in the gloom below the concrete bones of the expressway a holo of a woman danced in a cocktail glass, but there was a fault in the 'caster and the image kept fizzling out.
The wind built to a howl around her, and her thoughts sank into a place where there were only dim urges and nerves fizzling and blood whining in her ears.