Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (modern use, Aus./N.Z.) a disappointing failure, a fiasco, a ‘wash-out’.

1851		‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 16 Feb. 4/2: You’ll rekollekt [...] that Newminster was doin so well and look’d so promisin [...] and you rekollekt wat a fizzer he kame direkly arterward at ther Korner [Ibid.] 18 May 4/3: He ran but once (but that was a fizzer).
1931		W.R. Burnett Silver Eagle 53: Well,’ said Richman, ‘your skyrocket [i.e. a supposedly amusing guest] was a fizzer.’ ‘He’s dull as the deuce,’ Burne agreed.
1957		R.S. Porteous Brigalow 101: Good old Carson, I thought. You may be a bit of a fizzer, but you’ll do me.
1969		W. Dick Naked Prodigal 236: We all went to a New Year’s Eve party in Goodway, but it was a fizzer.
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 271: If that was Whiteside’s secret it was a fizzer.
1980		L. Mantell Murder and Chips 77: Peacock was not impressed. [...] ‘Looks like a fizzer. Beats me why the old man even brought it up.’.
1984		E. Ebbett When the Boys Were Away 176: We were happy the war was over but it was a fizzer. As far as we were concerned it was an anti-climax.
2000		Bug (Aus.) 4 Aug. 🌐 Every paper you pick up, every TV show you watch, told us the GST was a fizzer like the Y2K Bug.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 78: fizzer Failed item of machinery or fireworks. ANZ c1920.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Irish Fandango [ebook] [T]he last [job] had been a fizzer. The bastards [...] wouldn’t pay.
2019		G. Disher Peace 127: ‘With a bit of luck, tomorrow will be a fizzer’.

2. (US) a firecracker that fails to go off.

1914

J.C. Ruppenthal ‘A Word-List From Kansas’ in DN IV:ii 106: fizzer, n. [...] 2. A firecracker that explodes with a hiss.

3. a form of contraceptive.

1962

C. Rohan Delinquents 150: Who would think I’d be so stiff as to fall again? I used fizzers, too.