Also 6 whize, 7 whizze, 6, 9 dial. whuz(z. [Echoic. Cf. HIZZ.]
1. intr. To make a sound as of a body rushing through the air (see WHIZZ sb.); (of trees) to rustle; (of a burning or hot object) to hiss, sizzle. Now dial.
a. 1547. Surrey, Æneis, II. 535. As wrastling windes … Befight themselves,… The woods do whiz.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 67. Thee flams surmounting tenements doo whize to the skyward.
1589. [see WHIZZING ppl. a.].
1627. May, Lucan, VI. 199. The fire whizzes in burning eyes.
1675. Dryden, Aurengz., V. (1676), 85. ’Tis dry—’twill burn—Ha, ha! how my old Husband crackles there!… I know him; he’ll but whiz, and strait go out.
1711. Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 10 April. Is Dilly gone to the Bath? His face will whizz in the water.
1763. Colman, Terræ-Filius, No. 1. ¶ 4. Some queer old Gentleman may be alarmed at the Crackers bouncing about his Ears,… or a Squib whizzing in his Periwig.
1787. Grose, Prov. Gloss., Whiz, to hiss like hot iron in water.
1841. S. Warren, Ten Thou., i. The sound of his tea-kettle, hissing, whizzing, sputtering in the agonies of boiling over.
† b. To wheeze. Obs.
1607. [see WHIZZING vbl. sb.].
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Pigeonneau, Il a mangé les pigeonneaux, said of a man that whizzes, or speakes hoarse.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 134/2. A Baboon Whizeth, hath a Shrill Whizing.
1748. [see WHIZZING ppl. a. b].
2. To move swiftly with or as with such a sound.
1591. Harington, Orl. Fur., IX. lxix. The shot, gainst which no armour can suffice,… Doth whiz, and sing.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., II. i. 44. The exhalations, whizzing in the ayre, Giue so much light, that I may reade by them.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XXII. 123. The Hauke comes whizzing on.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, XI. 1169. When the Jav’lin whizz’d along the Skies.
a. 1721. Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.), Wks. (1723), II. 8. Both of us sitting together on the quarter-deck, heard a bullet whizzing over our heads.
1814. Wordsw., Excurs., VII. 741. How the quoit Whizzed from the Stripling’s arm!
1853. Hawthorne, Engl. Note-bks. (1883), I. 423. The small, black steamers, whizzing industriously along.
1914. ‘Ian Hay,’ Knt. on Wheels, xiii. § 2. Watching for the motors that whizzed north and south along the straight white road.
b. fig. To have a sensation of such a sound.
1797, 1854. [see WHIZZING vbl. sb.].
1865. Darwin, in Life & Lett. (1887), III. 34. Reading makes my head whiz.
1898. [see WHIZZING vbl. sb.].
3. trans. To cause to whizz; to hurl, shoot, or convey swiftly with a whizz; spec. in technical use, to dry by centrifugal force in a rapidly revolving apparatus (cf. WHIZZER b).
1836. W. Irving, Astoria, xlv. He was on the point of whizzing a bullet into the target.
1880. Meredith, Tragic Com., vii. A Balearic slinger about to whizz the stone.
1882. Crookes, Dyeing & Tissue-Printing, 228. Enter at 112° F., raise to a boil in three turns, wash well, whiz, and dry.
1884. W. S. B. McLaren, Spinning (ed. 2), 39. Most of the wool is ‘whizzed’ after drying.
