mizzle

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪzl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪzəl/
• Rhymes: -ɪzəl
• Hyphenation: mizz‧le
• Homophone: misle

Etymology 1

From Late Middle English misellen (“to drizzle”), cognate with Low German miseln, musseln (“to mizzle”), Dutch miezelen (“to drizzle, rain gently”). Of obscure origin, possibly a frequentative related to the base of mist; or, related to Middle Low German mes (“urine”), Middle Dutch mes, mis (“urine”), both from Old Saxon mehs (“urine”), from Proto-Germanic *mihstuz, *mihstaz, *mihsk- (“urine”), from *mīganą (“to urinate”), from Proto-Indo-European *meiǵʰ-, *omeiǵʰ- (“to urinate”). Compare also English micturate (“to urinate”), Old Frisian mese (“urine”), Low German miegen (“to urinate”), Dutch mijgen (“to urinate”), Danish mige (“to urinate”).

Verb

mizzle (third-person singular simple present mizzles, present participle mizzling, simple past and past participle mizzled)

1. (intransitive, UK, Canada, US, chiefly dialectal) To rain in very fine drops.

   Synonym: drizzle

Translations

to rain in fine drops

• Bulgarian: ръмя (bg) (rămja)
• Dutch: miezeren (nl)
• Finnish: tihkuttaa (fi)
• Galician: orballar (gl)
• Russian: мороси́ть (ru) (morosítʹ)
• Spanish: lloviznar (es)

Noun

mizzle (uncountable)

1. (UK, chiefly dialectal) Misty rain; drizzle.
2. A mist; a fine spray; a spattering.
   • 1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 20:

     But he knows he need never be in dread
     of your blade making a mizzle of his blood
     or of vengeance arriving ever from this quarter[.]

   • 2023, Gordon Doherty, Strategos: Island in the Storm‎^[1], Canelo + ORM:

     When a gawping Byzantine head bounced past his feet, and a mizzle of blood settled upon him, something changed.

Derived terms

• mizzly

Translations

misty rain

• Bulgarian: ръмеж m (rămež)
• Finnish: tihkusade (fi)
• Galician: orballo (gl) m
• Italian: pioggerellina f
• Russian: и́зморось (ru) f (ízmorosʹ)
• Spanish: llovizna (es)

Etymology 2

Unknown. Perhaps from Shelta mi(e)sli (“go”).

Verb

mizzle (third-person singular simple present mizzles, present participle mizzling, simple past and past participle mizzled)

1. (chiefly UK) To abscond, scram, flee.
   • 19th c. Epigram quoted by Thomas Wright (1810 - 1877), reproduced in Webster 1902-1913:

     As long as George IV could reign, he reigned, and then he mizzled.

   • 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:

     “Now you may mizzle, Jemmy (as we say at Court), and if Mr. Copperfield will take the chair I’ll operate on him.”

   • 1986, Joan Aiken, Dido and Pa [2]

     “Now you better mizzle,” Dido told him. “Get back to your own quarters, fast.”

2. (intransitive) To yield.
3. (transitive) To muddle or confuse. (Probably from a misreading of past tense/participle misled.)

Derived terms

• mizzler