fizzle

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To make a hissing or sputtering sound.
2. v. Informal To fail or end weakly, especially after a hopeful beginning.
3. n. Informal A failure; a fiasco.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To make a hissing sound; hiss or sputter, as a liquid or gas forced out of a narrow aperture, or a liquid discharging gas, or a wet combustible, as wood or gunpowder, burning: usually with special reference to the weakness and sudden diminution or cessation of such sound.
2. Hence To stop abruptly after a more or less brilliant start; come to a sudden and lame conclusion; fail ignominiously; specifically, in school and college slang, to fail in a recitation or an examination: often with out: as, the undertaking promised well, but it soon fizzled out; nearly the whole class fizzled in calculus.
3. To break wind.
4. In school and college slang, to examine (a student) with the result of failure on his part: as, the professor fizzled nearly the whole class.
5. n. Same as fizz, 2.
6. n. A fizzling or fizzing condition; hence, a state of restless agitation; a stew; worry: as, he is in a fizzle about his luggage.
7. n. A breaking wind.
8. n. A failure or an abortive effort; in particular, in school and college slang, a failure in a recitation or an examination.

Wiktionary

1. v. To sputter or hiss.
2. v. figuratively To decay or die off to nothing; to burn out; to end less successfully than previously hoped.
3. n. A spluttering or hissing sound.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To make a hissing sound.
2. v. Colloq. or Low To make a ridiculous failure in an undertaking, especially after a good start; to achieve nothing.
3. n. colloq. A failure or abortive effort; a fiasco.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. end weakly
2. n. a complete failure
3. n. a fricative sound (especially as an expression of disapproval)