To fail, particularly in a class recitation. FIZZLE, a failure.
1847. My dignity is outraged at beholding those who fizzle and flunk in my presence tower above me.—Yale Banger, Oct. 22. (N.E.D.)
1849. Fizzle. To rise with modest reluctance, to hesitate often, to decline finally; generally, to misunderstand the question.—Yale Lit. Mag., xiv. 144 (Jan.).
1852. Awaiting the sure Nemesis of a fizzle in esse, and a flunk in posse.—Id., xvii. 141 (Feb.).
1852. What six penny rushes—what complacent fizzles—what unmitigated flunks are reserved for rainy mornings?—Id., xvii. 342 (Aug.).
1854. The Steilacoom gold excitement has entirely fizzled out.—Olympia (W.T.) Pioneer, April 15.
1857. It is a lie, and it all fizzles out.—John Taylor at the Bowery, Salt Lake City, Aug. 9: ‘Journal of Discourses,’ v. 118.
1866. Blamed if every giggle I tried to make didn’t fizzle out into a regular whine.—C. H. Smith, ‘Bill Arp,’ p. 43.
1908. The election of Taft was discounted a month before election day, but the Socialist disappointment, the Prohibition check, and the Independence Party fizzle are still subjects for interested speculation.—N.Y. Evening Post, Dec. 14.
