dizzy

English

Alternative forms

• dizzie (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈdɪzi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪzi

Etymology

Old English dysiġ, probably related to West Frisian dize, (fog).

Adjective

dizzy (comparative dizzier, superlative dizziest)

1. having a sensation of turning around; giddy; feeling unbalanced or lightheaded.

   I stood up too fast and felt dizzy.

2. producing giddiness

   We climbed to a dizzy height.

   • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter IX

     ...faintly from the valley far below came an unmistakable sound which brought me to my feet, trembling with excitement, to peer eagerly downward from my dizzy ledge.

3. empty-headed, scatterbrained or frivolous

   My new secretary is a dizzy blonde.

Derived terms

• dizzily
• dizziness
• dizzyingly

Translations

having a sensation of turning around

• Bulgarian: замаян (bg) (zamajan)
• Dutch: draaierig (nl), duizelig (nl)
• French: tourni

• German: schwindelig (de)
• Kurdish:

  Kurmanji: gêj kirin (kmr)

• Portuguese: tonto (pt)
• Spanish: vertiginoso (es), mareado (es)

producing giddiness

• Bulgarian: шеметен (bg) (šemeten)
• Dutch: duizelingwekkend (nl)
• Finnish: huimaava (fi)
• German: schwindelerregend (de)

• Portuguese: vertiginoso (pt)
• Russian: головокружительный (ru) (golovokružitelʹnyj)
• Spanish: mareador (es), vertiginoso (es)

empty-headed, scatterbrained or frivolous

• Finnish: tyhmä (fi)

Verb

dizzy (third-person singular simple present dizzies, present participle dizzying, simple past and past participle dizzied)

1. (transitive) To make dizzy, to bewilder.
   • 2012 September 7, Dominic Fifield, “England start World Cup campaign with five-goal romp against Moldova”, The Guardian:

     So ramshackle was the locals' attempt at defence that, with energetic wingers pouring into the space behind panicked full-backs and centre-halves dizzied by England's movement, it was cruel to behold at times. The contest did not extend beyond the half-hour mark.

   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Folio Society 2006, vol. 1 p. 161:

     Let me have this violence and compulsion removed, there is nothing that, in my seeming, doth more bastardise and dizzie a wel-borne and gentle nature […]

   • Sir Walter Scott

     If the jangling of thy bells had not dizzied thy understanding.