fizzle 復習
米国テキサス州で猛威を振るった台風の被害がようやく収束に向かっています。
As Harvey finally fizzles, a look at what made it so nasty
The slow-moving, super-wet and especially devastating storm named Harvey is finally fizzling.
Since first hitting shore near Corpus Christi, Texas, more than a week ago, the storm dumped 27 trillion gallons of rain on Texas and Louisiana — enough to cover all of Manhattan a mile (1.6 kilometers) deep. It set a record for rainfall from a tropical system in the continental U.S., dropping 51.88 inches (1.3 meters) just outside Houston. That's only an eighth of an inch (3.2 millimeters) behind the U.S. record set in Hawaii in 1950.
The deluge damaged an estimated 156,000 dwellings, and parts of Houston may be flooded for another month. The death toll of 44 ranks it as the mainland's sixth deadliest hurricane in 50 years.
What made it so bad? Harvey was strange — in how it nearly dissolved once but roared back as a major hurricane, in how it intensified so quickly before hitting land, in how it parked itself over one unfortunate region for so long and, of course, in the amount of rain it generated.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/harvey-finally-fizzles-made-nasty-49594861
取り上げる単語は見出しにもある"fizzle"です。『ジーニアス英和辞典』第４版（大修館）で調べてみると、「（飲み物などが）かすかにシューシューと音を立てる」や「（最初はうまくいくが）失敗に終わる、尻すぼみになる」とありました。つまり、次第になくなる、終わる、というとこからここでは、事態が「収束する」という意味で使われています。LDOCEでは、"to gradually stop happening, especially because people become less interested"と定義されています。(Akim)
