zizz

American  

[ziz] / zɪz /

noun

• zizzes
  plural

1. British. a short sleep.

2. a buzzing or whizzing sound.

3. pizzazz; energy.

---

verb (used without object)

zizzed, zizzing

1. British. to sleep or nap.

2. to make or cause to make a buzzing or whizzing sound.

verb (used with object)

zizzed, zizzing

1. to jazz (up); to add pizzazz or energy to.

interjection

1. (used to imitate a buzzing or whizzing sound).

zizz British  

/ zɪz /

noun

1. a short sleep; nap

---

verb

1. to take a short sleep, snooze

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• zizzes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of zizz

C20: of imitative origin

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

zizz zizzed zizzing

As she spoke, the gnat-like zizz of an Israeli drone circling overhead grew louder.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2023

And now, having reached the end of the alphabet, I think I shall go off and have a quiet zizz.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 5, 2012

Such was the concentration that I held my breath lest I disturb a worker whose electric scissors "zizzed" deftly on a panel of perfect lace as she cut a scalloped edge.

From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2011

It glowed and fairly zizzed with colour, and had that radiating, vibrating quality that things have in the hot sunshine.

From Confessions of an Opera Singer by Kathleen Howard

And suddenly it zizzed right out of Schlorge's forceps and went buzzing straight off to the flowery hedge.

From The Garden of the Plynck by Florence Minard

There’s a bicyclist or two or twenty, speeding home after work, their wheels zizzing by her.

From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti

The mixture seemed to agree with it, too, for the familiar faint, pale-blue "zizzing" sound began to come from its wings.

From The Garden of the Plynck by Florence Minard

Leaning trolleys went zizzing along the banked highways, and at the ends of the unpaved avenues there were flat gleams of the lake.

From A Woman of Genius by Mary Hunter Austin