See on the fritz in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
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"etymology_text": "Unknown. Attested from 1902, originally meaning “in a bad way” or “in bad condition”, malfunctioning of an appliance. Perhaps from German name.\nFritz, or onomatopoeic (here, imitating the sound of electric sparks jumping).",
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"derived": [
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"tags": [
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"word": "fritz up"
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{
"text": "I'd record it, but my tape deck is on the fritz again.",
"type": "example"
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{
"text": "My washing machine has gone on the fritz, and I have a load of muddy clothes to clean.",
"type": "example"
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{
"ref": "2000 November 5, Bob Morris, “Don't Spill It on Me”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
"text": "Actually, no one had noticed, from what I could tell, though I was alarmed to hear about it. Why was our pilot telling us about questionable brakes and a computer on the fritz when we still had a landing to worry about five hours ahead?",
"type": "quote"
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{
"ref": "2004, Lisa Marie Rice, Woman On the Run, page 32:",
"text": "No ′40s movie heroine worth the name would have a house that let in gusts of gelid air, had a heating system that went on the fritz constantly and leaked.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2006, Nero Blanc, Death on the Diagonal, page 191:",
"text": "“Or your cell-phone reception went on the fritz. We know how often that happens.”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2010, Ralph Bowersox, Ralph's True Stories: Entertaining Chronicles of Life in Clarion County, Pennsylvania, Late 1920s through the Present Day, page 185:",
"text": "Some time ago, a tenant called me and said her refrigerator was on the fritz. I had a spare, so I took it down to her and exchanged it for her old one.",
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"Out of order; malfunctioning; broken."
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"(of electrical or mechanical appliances, idiomatic, Northern US) Out of order; malfunctioning; broken."
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"synonyms": [
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"word": "fritzed"
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{
"tags": [
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"word": "bung"
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"word": "on the blink"
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"translations": [
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "out of order, malfunctioning",
"word": "i udu"
},
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "out of order, malfunctioning",
"word": "kaput"
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{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "out of order, malfunctioning",
"word": "kaputt"
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{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "out of order, malfunctioning",
"word": "hin"
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"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"note": "szwankować impf (means more literally \"be on the fritz\" as a verb)",
"sense": "out of order, malfunctioning"
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"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "out of order, malfunctioning",
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"word": "dar o berro"
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"word": "ir-se"
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"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "slóman",
"sense": "out of order, malfunctioning",
"word": "сло́ман"
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"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "polóman",
"sense": "out of order, malfunctioning",
"word": "поло́ман"
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"word": "on the fritz"
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"text": "My washing machine has gone on the fritz, and I have a load of muddy clothes to clean.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "2000 November 5, Bob Morris, “Don't Spill It on Me”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
"text": "Actually, no one had noticed, from what I could tell, though I was alarmed to hear about it. Why was our pilot telling us about questionable brakes and a computer on the fritz when we still had a landing to worry about five hours ahead?",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2004, Lisa Marie Rice, Woman On the Run, page 32:",
"text": "No ′40s movie heroine worth the name would have a house that let in gusts of gelid air, had a heating system that went on the fritz constantly and leaked.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2006, Nero Blanc, Death on the Diagonal, page 191:",
"text": "“Or your cell-phone reception went on the fritz. We know how often that happens.”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2010, Ralph Bowersox, Ralph's True Stories: Entertaining Chronicles of Life in Clarion County, Pennsylvania, Late 1920s through the Present Day, page 185:",
"text": "Some time ago, a tenant called me and said her refrigerator was on the fritz. I had a spare, so I took it down to her and exchanged it for her old one.",
"type": "quote"
}
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"Out of order; malfunctioning; broken."
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"Out of order",
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"(of electrical or mechanical appliances, idiomatic, Northern US) Out of order; malfunctioning; broken."
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{
"word": "fritzed"
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"word": "bung"
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"word": "on the blink"
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{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "out of order, malfunctioning",
"word": "i udu"
},
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "out of order, malfunctioning",
"word": "kaput"
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"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "out of order, malfunctioning",
"word": "kaputt"
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"sense": "out of order, malfunctioning",
"word": "hin"
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{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"note": "szwankować impf (means more literally \"be on the fritz\" as a verb)",
"sense": "out of order, malfunctioning"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "out of order, malfunctioning",
"tags": [
"Portugal"
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"word": "dar o berro"
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{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "out of order, malfunctioning",
"tags": [
"past"
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"word": "ir-se"
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{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "slóman",
"sense": "out of order, malfunctioning",
"word": "сло́ман"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "polóman",
"sense": "out of order, malfunctioning",
"word": "поло́ман"
}
],
"word": "on the fritz"
}
Download raw JSONL data for on the fritz meaning in English (4.3kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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