FIZZLE. Halliwell says: "The half-hiss, half-sigh of an animal." In many colleges in the United States, this word is applied to a bad recitation, probably from the want of distinct articulation which usually attends such performances. It is further explained in the Yale Banger, November 10, 1846: "This figure of a wounded snake is intended to represent what in technical language is termed a _fizzle_. The best judges have decided, that to get just one third of the meaning right constitutes a _perfect fizzle_." With a mind and body so nearly at rest, that naught interrupted my inmost repose save cloudy reminiscences of a morning "_fizzle_" and an afternoon "flunk," my tranquillity was sufficiently enviable.--_Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XV. p. 114. Here he could _fizzles_ mark without a sigh, And see orations unregarded die. _The Tomahawk_, Nov., 1849. Not a wail was heard, or a "_fizzle's_" mild sigh, As his corpse o'er the pavement we hurried. _The Gallinipper_, Dec., 1849. At Princeton College, the word _blue_ is used with _fizzle_, to render it intensive; as, he made a _blue fizzle_, he _fizzled blue_. FIZZLE. To fail in reciting; to recite badly. A correspondent from Williams College says: "Flunk is the common word when some unfortunate man makes an utter failure in recitation. He _fizzles_ when he stumbles through at last." Another from Union writes: "If you have been lazy, you will probably _fizzle_." A writer in the Yale Literary Magazine thus humorously defines this word: "_Fizzle_. To rise with modest reluctance, to hesitate often, to decline finally; generally, to misunderstand the question."--Vol. XIV. p. 144. My dignity is outraged at beholding those who _fizzle_ and flunk in my presence tower above me.--_The Yale Banger_, Oct. 22, 1847. I "skinned," and "_fizzled_" through. _Presentation Day Songs_, June 14, 1854. The verb _to fizzle out_, which is used at the West, has a little stronger signification, viz. to be quenched, extinguished; to prove a failure.--_Bartlett's Dict. Americanisms_. The factious and revolutionary action of the fifteen has interrupted the regular business of the Senate, disgraced the actors, and _fizzled out_.--_Cincinnati Gazette_. 2. To cause one to fail in reciting. Said of an instructor. _Fizzle_ him tenderly, Bore him with care, Fitted so slenderly, Tutor, beware. _Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XIII. p. 321. FIZZLING. Reciting badly; the act of making a poor recitation. Of this word, a writer jocosely remarks: "_Fizzling_ is a somewhat _free_ translation of an intricate sentence; proving a proposition in geometry from a wrong figure. Fizzling is caused sometimes by a too hasty perusal of the pony, and generally by a total loss of memory when called upon to recite."--_Sophomore Independent_, Union College, Nov. 1854. Weather drizzling, Freshmen _fizzling_. _Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XV. p. 212.