Dizzy

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈdɪzi/
• Rhymes: -ɪzi

Alternative forms

• dizzie obsolete

Origin

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

Full definition of dizzy

Adjective

1. Having a sensation of whirling, with a tendency to fall; giddy; feeling unbalanced or lightheaded.I stood up too fast and felt dizzy.
• DraytonAlas! his brain was dizzy.
2. Producing giddiness.We climbed to a dizzy height.
• MacaulayTo climb from the brink of Fleet Ditch by a dizzy ladder.
• 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot (novel) 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 frivolousMy new secretary is a dizzy blonde.
• Miltonthe dizzy multitude

Derived terms

• dizzily
• dizziness
• dizzyingly

Verb

1. (transitive) To make dizzy, to bewilder.
• 2012, September 7, Dominic Fifield, England start World Cup campaign with five-goal romp against Moldova, 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 ScottIf the jangling of thy bells had not dizzied thy understanding.