fritz

noun

: a state of disorder or disrepair
used in the phrase on the fritz
One day the Internet connection at the house goes on the fritz [=stops working properly], so I go with the laptop to a cafe and ask if it has wireless.Joel Achenbach

Examples of fritz in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web As the building opened to the public on Tuesday, the equipment used to print birth certificates and other vital records was on the fritz, leaving workers to triage a line as long as 30 people deep that snaked outside the building. Jenna Portnoy, Washington Post, 1 Mar. 2024 Up to this point, Robbie had been playing a silly fantasy on the fritz, contemplating death, keeling over on fake lawns in real defeat. Wesley Morris, New York Times, 18 Feb. 2024 And that’s even before a soda dispenser goes on the fritz and floods the kitchen with cherry coke. David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Feb. 2024 On a random summer day in Oslo, the recently deceased are reanimated, an unexplained event marked by flocks of panicked birds, power outages, traffic lights on the fritz and car alarms spontaneously going off. David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Jan. 2024 In 1859, for example, an intense solar storm known as the Carrington Event sent global telegraph systems on the fritz, (literally) shocking operators who watched in awe as sparks allegedly flew out of their machines. Brigid Kennedy, The Week, 1 Aug. 2023 The passenger has a rougher time—almost as if the Blazer EV's inertial dampeners are on the fritz. Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica, 13 Dec. 2023 Dave Madore owns the arcade and jukeboxes inside the restaurant, where he was supposed to be Wednesday night to fix a jukebox that was on the fritz. Alexandra E. Petri, Los Angeles Times, 31 Oct. 2023 If your cell phone, for instance, landed on Venus, the thermal energy would set off a flurry of electrons and send your device on the fritz. Debbie G. Senesky, Scientific American, 17 Oct. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fritz.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

origin unknown

First Known Use

1902, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of fritz was in 1902

Dictionary Entries Near fritz

Cite this Entry

“Fritz.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fritz. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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