of Dr. Popkin.--_Memorial of John S.
Popkin, D.D._, p. ix.

At Dartmouth College, the electioneering for members of the secret
societies was formerly called _fishing_. At the same institution,
individuals in the Senior Class were said to be _fishing for
appointments_, if they tried to gain the good-will of the Faculty
by any special means.

FIVES. A kind of play with a ball against the side of a building,
resembling tennis; so named, because three _fives_ or _fifteen_
are counted to the game.--_Smart_.

A correspondent, writing of Centre College, Ky., says: "Fives was
a game very much in vogue, at which the President would often take
a hand, and while the students would play for ice-cream or some
other refreshment, he would never fail to come in for his share."

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.

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