dizzy

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪzi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪzi

From Middle English dysy, desy, dusi, from Old English dysiġ (“stupid, foolish”), from Proto-West Germanic *dusīg (“stunned; dazed”), likely from the root of Proto-Germanic *dwēsaz (“foolish, stupid”).

Akin to West Frisian dize (“fog”), Dutch deusig, duizig (“dizzy”), duizelig (“dizzy”), German dösig (“sleepy; stupid”).

dizzy (comparative dizzier, superlative dizziest)

1. Experiencing a sensation of whirling and of being giddy, unbalanced, or lightheaded.

   I stood up too fast and felt dizzy.

   • 1627, Michaell Drayton [i.e., Michael Drayton], “Nimphidia. The Court of Fayrie.”, in The Battaile of Agincourt. […], London: […] A[ugustine] M[atthews] for VVilliam Lee, […], published 1631, →OCLC:

     Alas! his brain was dizzy.

2. Producing giddiness.

   Synonym: dizzying

   We climbed to a dizzy height.

   • 1856 February, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Oliver Goldsmith”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC:

     To climb from the brink of Fleet Ditch by a dizzy ladder.

   • 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IX, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I, II, or III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:

     ...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 frivolous; ditzy.

   My new secretary is a dizzy blonde.

   • 1671, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC:

     the dizzy multitude

4. (UK dialectal, Yorkshire) simple, half-witted.
   • 1952 Albert Lyon Hoy, An Etymologal Glossary of the East Yorkshire Dialect

     Them as diz ’at is dizzy.

     Those who do that are half-witted.

• dizzie (obsolete)

• dizzies (noun)
• dizzily
• dizziness
• dizzy bat
• dizzy izzy
• dizzy limit
• dizzying
• dizzyingly

• dizz

dizzy (third-person singular simple present dizzies, present participle dizzying, simple past and past participle dizzied)

1. (transitive) To make (someone or something) dizzy; to bewilder.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     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 […]

   • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     If the jangling of thy bells had not dizzied thy understanding.

   • 2012 September 7, Dominic Fifield, “England start World Cup campaign with five-goal romp against Moldova”, in The Guardian:

     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.

dizzy (plural dizzies)

1. (slang, automotive) A distributor (device in internal combustion engine).
   • 2005, Roger Williams, How to Give Your MGB V8 Power, page 201:

     A service exchange distributor usually needs to be ordered by a motor factor and cost £150-200! I would suggest you use the SD1 dizzy body/cap etc but change the trigger mechanism to a modern electronic/breakerless unit such as the Newtronic unit.