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mizzle

mizz·le/ˈmɪzəl/verb, noun

mizzle is a verb meaning “To rain in very fine drops” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled M-I-Z-Z-L-E and has 2 syllables (mizz·le), and it appears about once in every 60 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does mizzle mean?

verb

  1. 1

    CanadaUKUSTo rain in very fine drops.

  2. 2

    UKTo abscond, scram, flee.

    As long as George IV could reign, he reigned, and then he mizzled.

  3. 3

    To yield.

  4. 4

    To muddle or confuse. (Probably from a misreading of past tense/participle misled.)

noun

  1. 1

    UKMisty rain; drizzle.

  2. 2

    A mist; a fine spray; a spattering.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce mizzle?

  • UK /ˈmɪzl/
  • US /ˈmɪzəl/

Mizzle has 2 syllables, split mizz·le in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-mizzle.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of mizzle

  • mizzles present, singular, he/she/it
  • mizzling participle, present
  • mizzled participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is mizzle?

Mizzle appears about once in every 60 million words in written English, the 243,301st most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Mizzle in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Spanishlloviznar (to rain in fine drops), llovizna (misty rain)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does mizzle come from?

From Late Middle English misellen (“to drizzle”), cognate with Low German miseln, musseln (“to mizzle”), Dutch miezelen (“to drizzle, rain gently”). Of obscure origin, possibly a frequentative related to the base of mist; or, related to Middle Low German mes (“urine”), Middle Dutch mes, mis (“urine”), both from Old Saxon mehs (“urine”), from Proto-Germanic *mihstuz, *mihstaz, *mihsk- (“urine”), from *mīganą (“to urinate”), from Proto-Indo-European *meiǵʰ-, *omeiǵʰ- (“to urinate”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).