Meaning of fizgig | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A flirtatious, coquettish girl, inclined to gad or gallivant about; a gig, a giglot, a jillflirt.
   archaic
2. A small squib-like firework that explodes with a fizzing or hissing noise.
   archaic
3. A spear with a barb on the end of it, used for catching fish, frogs, or other small animals; a type of harpoon.
4. A police informer, a stool pigeon, someone employed by police to entrap someone else or provoke them to commit a crime.
   Australia, dated, slang
5. common ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris, syn. Senecio jacobaea).
   Scotland, rare
6. Something frivolous or trivial; a gewgaw, a trinket.
   archaic

Equivalents

Examples

“You thinke (perhaps) to win⟳ great fame / by uncouth sutes and fashions wilde: / All such as know⟳ you thinke the same, / but in ech kind you are beguilde; / For when you looke for praises sound⟳; / Then are you for light⟳ fisgiggs crownde.”

“I don't see⟳ why Gertrude is not young enough and strong enough to take⟳ care of her child herself, without having a fine madman of a nurse to help⟳ her. If she cannot it is time she is learned;—anyway, I will keep⟳ no such fizgigs about here.”

“"[…] Lillie did the best she could, poor girl! but I could see⟳ all the time she was worrying about her new fizgigs and folderols in the house.[…]" / "[…] Young mistresses, you see⟳, have⟳ nerves all over their house at first. They tremble at every dent in their furniture, and wink when you come⟳ near it, as if you were going to hit it a blow⟳; but that wears off in time, and they learn⟳ to take⟳ it easy."”

“Mr. Leslie Stephen's style is exactly the opposite to Canon [Charles] Kingsley's. We have⟳ no fizgigs of fine writing for fine writing's sake, or for the sake of anything else. God is not adjured nor complimented in every other page. Christianity and muscles find⟳ their proper places. It is a perfect relief after the flabby, effeminate rhetoric with which we are now deluged, to read⟳ Mr. Leslie Stephen's terse and masculine style.”

“Tawdry has been applied to some of the pianoforte "fizgigs" that [Franz] Liszt attached to pieces he adapted from themes by others; that may or may not be a justifiable designation, but we look⟳ in vain for any such treatment in the Dead March⟳.”

“What the Chevalier [Mortram] is about to do no one is supposed to know⟳ but himself. In the impenetrable breast of the artist lies the determination […] whether a Devil-among-the-Tailors shall end⟳ his freaks with a grand explosion of flower-pots and fizzgigs; […] or a fiery dragon to dart and wriggle and spit⟳ fire over the heads of the spectators.”

“Very different were our fizgigs at Brambles'. Neither powder nor pepper (you know⟳) was adulterated in those days, and if you made a fizgig, why it blossomed and starred like⟳ a golden thistle, flashed into a myriad sparklets like⟳ a tiny fountain for Queen Mab and her troupe to dance⟳ around.”

“And one day fortune played into his hand by sending a customer to the shop⟳ for two ounces of gunpowder, when Paul was standing by. / "Do you keep⟳ gunpowder, then?" said Paul, with kindling eyes, as the man left the shop⟳. / "Yes," answered his brother innocently, "but we only sell⟳ it to grown-up people. Boys wouldn't know⟳ what to do with it." / "Wouldn't they, though? Why, you can make⟳ fizgigs of it that blaze like⟳ Vesuvius, the burning mountain."”

“Half a dozen boys in linen blazers, their hair in uniform flattops, were shooting off fizgigs in his alley and paid him no mind⟳ as he pretended to use⟳ his key to unlock⟳ the alley-oop door.”

“At day break⟳ we were cloſe by the Peninſule Mozambique (part of Quiloa) inhabited by Negroes; abundant in Gold, Silver, and Ambergreece; […] [A]n Armado of Dolphins aſſaulted us; and ſuch we ſaulted as we could intice to taſte our hooks or fiſſgiggs: […]”

“FIZGIG, ſ[ubſtantive] [a ſort of dart or harpoon with which ſeamen ſtrike fiſh.] Sorte de harpon.”

“[T]he inhabitants of this bay appeared to possess⟳, in general, a very pointed difference from, if not a superiority over, those of New South Wales, particularly in their net-works. There was no doubt⟳ but they were provided with nets for catching very large fish⟳, or animals; […] Mr. [Matthew] Flinders was of opinion, that this mode of procuring their food would cause a characteristic difference between the manners, and perhaps the dispositions of these people, and of those who mostly depend⟳ upon the spear or fizgig for a supply⟳.”

“[T]wo of these red Indians in a boat, and they just paddle soft, paddle soft, as still as still, and they come⟳ up to the turtles as they lie⟳ asleep in the sea, and then. Whang. They dart their fizgigs. They never miss⟳.”

“In order⟳ to make⟳ the clause perfect the Minister might add⟳— / All "spotters," spies, fizgigs, and informers will be properly rewarded, and duly promoted, and guaranteed against publicity.”

“"Fizgigs?" Wood asks. / "Pimps. A fizgig is an agent provocateur – he gets you to do something you shouldn't do and that will hang⟳ you in court. A pimp gets you to do something innocuous that will still hang⟳ you.[…]"”

“A normal feller going about his business will give⟳ ya the once over without a squirm, but not this joker. Either he was a fizgig, or he was there to tip⟳ off someone about Jack's movements – Soupy, presumably.”

“S[enecio] jacobæa. Ragwort: Yellow-weed: Yellow elshinders, and in the Merse [Berwickshire], Fizz-gigs.—A common weed in old pastures and by road-sides.”

CEFR level