fizzle

verb

1. To sputter or hiss.

   “The soda fizzled for several minutes after it was poured.”

   “It is the easest thing, sir, to be done, / As plain as fizzling.”

2. (figuratively, informal)To decay or die off to nothing; to burn out; to end less successfully than previously hoped.

   “The entire project fizzled after the founder quit.”

   “I had a suspicion that Stephanie's native ingenuity rather fizzled there. You know, Stephanie dear, there is a difference, it seems, between Bombay and Californian pearls.”

   “And so it fizzled to its close with Gary Cahill galloping around as an extra centre-forward, mutinous chants of “you’re not fit to wear the shirt,” from the England followers and Hodgson’s media staff announcing he would not take any questions.”

3. To fail to generate the expected yield when exploded during testing.

   “The shot fizzled, generating only 200 tons rather than the 30 kilotons they were aiming for.”

noun

1. A spluttering or hissing sound.
2. Failure of an exploding nuclear bomb to meet its expected yield during testing.
3. An abortive effort; a flop or dud.
4. A state of agitation or worry.