sizzler n.
1. (US) any exciting thing or person; thus sizzling adj., exciting.
 | Free Soil Minstrel n.p.: They’ve called us sizzlers long enough, We now begin to boil [DA]. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 65: One o’ the regulars gets his ear and wants to be put wise to the red-hot sizzler. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Psmith in the City (1993) 50: I also am a worker. A toiler, not a flatfish. A sizzler, not a squab. | |
| World I Never Made 36: The crack of the bat, a sizzler over first base. | |
| Boy’s Book of Cricket 165: It was a real sizzler, and he never looked like getting his bat to it. | |
| News-Jrnl (Mansfield, OH) 10 Oct. 8/1: Darryl’s comeback is said to be a sizzler. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 78: I’ve got a real sizzler on this week. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | All Looks Yellow to the Jaundiced Eye 101: I was mortified to find myself beaten by a sizzling backhand drive. | |
| Dly Press (Newport News, VA) 26 Mar. 26/7: The mile relay for the prep boys could be a sizzler. | |
| Howard the Duck 186: Hrobosky, the mad Hungarian relief pitcher [...] set to toss a sizzler past some thoroughly bollixed rookie. |
2. a noisy but ultimately unimpressive individual.
| Sheffield Wkly Teleg. 21 Mar. 3/4: ‘al, golldarn me, if you ain’t the most all-fired set of hypocritical sizzlers I ever roosted amongst’. |
3. (US, also frizzler) a very hot day.
| Emporia (Kansas) Gaz. 1 July n.p.: The drought which is a sizzler and frier and boiler is a good thing for Kansas. | |
| N.Y. Tribune 15 Sept. 11/1: I was looking for another dry sizzler, but [...] I wakes up in the mornin’ and the rain is comin’ down slantwise. | |
| letter in Canteening Overseas (1920) 113: Today is a sizzler. | |
| Tramp-Royal on the Toby 45: Next day was a frizzler. The countryside pulsated under a heat wave. | |
| Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 69: The day was going to be another sizzler. |
4. a statement (written or spoken) which will alarm or otherwise excite the readers/listeners.
| Santa Cruz Eve. News (CA) 15 June 1/2: Friends of the general who visited army headquarters where he is preparing a statement predicted that it would be a ‘sizzler’. | |
| Des Moines Trib. (IA) 11 Feb. 13/5: I will then issue a formal reply which will be a sizzler. | |
| On Broadway 12 Dec. [synd. col.] The President’s off-the-record speech contained nothing worth keeping secret [...] Hull persuaded him to nix a planned anti-Soviet sizzler. |
5. (US tramp) a construction camp cook.
| ‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 462: Sizzler, The cook at a construction camp. |
6. a shot, e.g. from a sling shot.
| Bound for Glory (1969) 154: Our boys peppered more sizzlers. |
7. (US) the electric chair.
| (con. 1940s–60s) Straight from the Fridge Dad. |
8. something salacious, risqué, e.g. a book or clothing.
| On Broadway 22 Aug. [synd. col.] The UP’s Jay Breen has a sizzler in a new weekly due any day [...] ‘Society girls are the newest cafe society call girls.’. | |
| 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases. | |
| Detroir Free Press (MI) 23 Apr. 56/2: There’s a fashion idea coming which is htter and briefer than hot Pants. It’s called the ‘sizzler’. | |
| (ref. to 1917–18) Make the Kaiser Dance 260: He would read us some of the letters he was constantly getting from women all over France. They were sizzlers, all right. | |
| Honey, Honey, Miss Thang 33: We were wearing sizzlers then. That’s the name of a dress. They were real short and they had matching panties. But they called them sizzlers [...] and we looked real, real cute. |