Meanings
- Northern USUSespeciallyOut of order; malfunctioning; broken.
I'd record it, but my tape deck is on the fritz again.
5 more examples
My washing machine has gone on the fritz, and I have a load of muddy clothes to clean.
Actually, no one had noticed, from what I could tell, though I was alarmed to hear about it. Why was our pilot telling us about questionable brakes and a computer on the fritz when we still had a landing to worry about five hours ahead?
2000 November 5, Bob Morris, “Don't Spill It on Me”, in The New York Times, →ISSNNo ′40s movie heroine worth the name would have a house that let in gusts of gelid air, had a heating system that went on the fritz constantly and leaked.
2004, Lisa Marie Rice, Woman On the Run, page 32“Or your cell-phone reception went on the fritz. We know how often that happens.”
2006, Nero Blanc, Death on the Diagonal, page 191Some time ago, a tenant called me and said her refrigerator was on the fritz. I had a spare, so I took it down to her and exchanged it for her old one.
2010, Ralph Bowersox, Ralph's True Stories: Entertaining Chronicles of Life in Clarion County, Pennsylvania, Late 1920s through the Present Day, page 185Synonyms: fritzed, bung, on the blink, spaz
Synonyms & antonyms
prepositional phraseOut of order; malfunctioning; broken.
Origin
Unknown. Attested from 1902, originally meaning “in a bad way” or “in bad condition”, malfunctioning of an appliance. Perhaps from German name Fritz, or onomatopoeic (imitating the sound of electric sparks jumping).
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Danish i udu, kaput
- i uduout of order, malfunctioning
- kaputout of order, malfunctioning
German kaputt, hin
- kaputtout of order, malfunctioning
- hinout of order, malfunctioning
Hungarian gajra megy, bekrepál
- gajra megyout of order, malfunctioning
- bekrepálout of order, malfunctioning
Polish zepsuty
- zepsutyout of order, malfunctioning
Portuguese dar o berro, ir-se
- dar o berroout of order, malfunctioning
- ir-seout of order, malfunctioning
Russian сло́ман, поло́ман
- сло́ман (slóman)out of order, malfunctioning
- поло́ман (polóman)out of order, malfunctioning
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with on the fritz
All rhymes →Cite this entry
on the fritz. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20the%20fritz
“on the fritz.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20the%20fritz. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “on the fritz,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20the%20fritz.
Source: on the fritz on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.