Green’s Dictionary of Slang

fizzle (out) v.

[the sound of escaping air + fizzle v.2 (3)]

1. to kill.

[US]T. Haliburton Nature and Human Nature II 156: Mr dear old missus died from only eaten hogs wid dere heads on [...] she was fizzled out by bad coookery at de last.

2. (orig. US) to peter out, to fail gradually but surely; also used as n. see cite 1861.

Cincinnati Gazette n.p.: It cannot be possible, after all that has been said and done about a ‘splendid hotel,’ that our enterprising business men will let it fizzle out [B].
[US]Holmes Co. Repub. (OH) 12 Nov. 3/1: The Constitutional Convention is in a fair way to fizzle out.
[US]letter q. in Wiley Life of Billy Yank (1952) 275: The Erie Regiment is one grand fizzle out.
[UK]M. MacFie Vancouver Island and British Columbia 416: The slang in vogue in the mining regions is imported mainly from California, and is often as expressive as it is original. [...] When a claim disappoints the hopes of those interested in it, it has ‘fizzled out.’.
[US]Grange Advance (Red Wing, MN) 9 Feb. 5/1: if a grange should fizzle out, what can a member do if he wishes to keep with the order?
[US]Iola Register (KS) 6 Feb. 1/3: If the Register printed such silly twaddle as the Independent [...] it would soon fizzle out.
[US]Advocate & Topeka Trib. (KS) 10 May 13/2: The Ady contest case will ‘fizzle out’ and soon be settled.
[UK]A.N. Lyons Hookey 68: Come, come, comrades! You ain’t goin’ter let this so-called debate fizzle out where it begun?
[US] ‘Central Connecticut Word-List’ in DN III:i 9: fizzle outv. To prove a failure.
[US]N. Davis Northerner 258: That talk about the unconstitutionality of the Moody bill fizzled out, did n’t it?
[Scot]Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 25 Nov. 2/6: Unless they provided some tangible inducement to the men the whole thing will fizzle out.
[UK]A. Brazil Luckiest Girl in School 3: ‘We always have more or less of a fuss when my school bills come in. It’ll soon fizzle out again!’.
[Scot]Dundee Courier 5 July 4/5: [headline] Buckhaven Charges Fizzle Out.
[UK]F. Anthony ‘Efficiency’ in Me And Gus (1977) 58: Then all of a sudden, the old chap’s interest in swedes seemed to fizzle out.
[UK]J. MacLaren-Ross ‘Y List’ in Memoirs of the Forties (1984) 249: The wireless [...] was now altogether Roosevelt and sometimes Bing Crosby. Hess had fizzled out.
[Aus](con. 1936–46) K.S. Prichard Winged Seeds (1984) 229: She thought this wild-fire amour between himself and Pat would fizzle out.
[US]Kerouac letter 2 Jan. in Charters I (1995) 323: As for my ‘marriage,’ that fizzled.
[UK]A. Buckeridge Jennings in Particular (1988) 9: You wouldn’t expect the game to fizzle out in the first over.
[US]C. McFadden Serial 32: Her job search having fizzled out.
[Ire]P. Crosbie Your Dinner’s Poured Out! 105: The war lasted a couple of weeks and then fizzled out.
[UK]Guardian 15 Oct. 17: JonBenet murder case fizzles out.
[Ire]F. Mac Anna Cartoon City 148: I need to know if you’re serious about us. Or are you going to go on playing me along like this until we fizzle out?
[UK]M. Collins Keepers of Truth 54: The AP carried a small piece [...] and then things fizzled.
[US]W. Kramer Hard Stuff 41: [T]he whole thing fizzled out before it started.
[Aus]C. Hammer Opal Country 43: ‘It [i.e. rain] was real heavy last weekend [...] Fizzled out by Wednesday’.