dignity is outraged at beholding those who _fizzle_ and flunk
in my presence tower above me.--_The Yale Banger_, Oct. 22, 1847.

I "skinned," and "_fizzled_" through.
_Presentation Day Songs_, June 14, 1854.

The verb _to fizzle out_, which is used at the West, has a little
stronger signification, viz. to be quenched, extinguished; to
prove a failure.--_Bartlett's Dict. Americanisms_.

The factious and revolutionary action of the fifteen has
interrupted the regular business of the Senate, disgraced the
actors, and _fizzled out_.--_Cincinnati Gazette_.

2. To cause one to fail in reciting. Said of an instructor.

_Fizzle_ him tenderly,
Bore him with care,
Fitted so slenderly,
Tutor, beware.
_Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XIII. p. 321.

FIZZLING. Reciting badly; the act of making a poor recitation.

Of this word, a writer jocosely remarks: "_Fizzling_ is a somewhat
_free_ translation of an intricate sentence; proving a proposition
in geometry from a wrong figure. Fizzling is caused sometimes by a
too hasty perusal of the pony, and generally by a total loss of
memory when called upon to recite."--_Sophomore Independent_,
Union College, Nov. 1854.

Weather drizzling,
Freshmen _fizzling_.
_Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XV. p. 212.

FLAM. At the University of Vermont, in student phrase, to _flam_
is to be attentive, at any time, to any lady or company of ladies.
E.g. "He spends half his time _flamming_" i.e. in the society of
the other sex.

FLASH-IN-THE-PAN. A student is said to make a _flash-in-the-pan_
when he commences to recite brilliantly, and suddenly fails; the
latter part of such a recitation is a FIZZLE. The metaphor is
borrowed from a gun, which, after being primed, loaded, and ready
to be discharged, _flashes in the pan_.

FLOOR. Among collegians, to answer such questions as may be
propounded concerning a given subject.

Then Olmsted took hold, but he couldn't make it go,
For we _floored_ the Bien. Examination.
_Presentation Day Songs_, Yale Coll., June 14, 1854.

To _floor a paper_, is to answer every question in it.--_Bristed_.

Somehow I nearly _floored the paper_, and came out feeling much
more comfortable than when I went in.--_Bristed's Five Years in an
Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 12.

Our best classic had not time to _floor_ the _paper_.--_Ibid._, p.
135.

FLOP. A correspondent from the University of Vermont writes: "Any
'cute' performance by which a ma