fizzle vs sputter

fizzle

verb
  • To sputter or hiss. 

  • To fail to generate the expected yield when exploded during testing. 

  • To decay or die off to nothing; to burn out; to end less successfully than previously hoped. 

noun
  • Failure of an exploding nuclear bomb to meet its expected yield during testing. 

  • An abortive effort; a flop or dud. 

  • A state of agitation or worry. 

  • A spluttering or hissing sound. 

sputter

verb
  • To speak so rapidly as to emit saliva; to utter words hastily and indistinctly, with a spluttering sound, as in rage. 

  • To emit saliva or spit from the mouth in small, scattered portions, as in rapid speaking. 

  • To cause surface atoms or electrons of a solid to be ejected by bombarding it with heavy atoms or ions. 

  • To coat the surface of an object by sputtering. 

  • To throw out anything, as little jets of steam, with a noise like that made by one sputtering. 

noun
  • Moist matter thrown out in small detached particles. 

  • Confused and hasty speech. 

How often have the words fizzle and sputter occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )