on the fritz | Idiomator

Meaning: (of electrical or mechanical appliances,idiomatic,Northern US)Out of order;malfunctioning;broken.Synonyms:fritzed,(Australian)bung,(UK, Australia)on the blink,(offensive)spazI'd record it, but my tape deck ison the fritzagain.My washing machine has goneon the fritz, and I have a load of muddy clothes to clean.2000November 5, Bob Morris, “Don't Spill It on Me”, inThe New York Times‎[1],→ISSN: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 computeron the fritzwhen we still had a landing to worry about five hours ahead?2004, Lisa Marie Rice,Woman On the Run,page32:No ′40s movie heroine worth the name would have a house that let in gusts of gelid air, had a heating system that wenton the fritzconstantly and leaked.2006, Nero Blanc,Death on the Diagonal,page191:“Or your cell-phone reception wenton the fritz. We know how often that happens.”2010, Ralph Bowersox,Ralph's True Stories: Entertaining Chronicles of Life in Clarion County, Pennsylvania, Late 1920s through the Present Day,page185:Some time ago, a tenant called me and said her refrigerator wason the fritz. I had a spare, so I took it down to her and exchanged it for her old one.

Examples:

EN: Uncle's business is on the fritz.
ES: El negocio de mi tío está muy mal.
EN: Oh, some dame down in santa monica's Got a washing machine on the fritz. Tell her not to worry.
ES: A una se le ha estropeado la lavadora.
EN: Give it a little hit, the plumbing's on the fritz.
ES: - Feliz Navidad. - Y Feliz Navidad para ti, Santa.
EN: Hmm, on the fritz.
ES: Lo arreglaré en un momentín.
EN: And the life there? It's on the fritz, believe me.
ES: Y la vida allá está estropeada, créeme.
EN: But you said it's on the fritz over there.
ES: Dijiste que allá todo está estropeado.
EN: Now it's on the fritz here.
ES: Ahora aquí todo está estropeado.
EN: Am I gonna put that big piano on the fritz!
ES: ¡Voy a inutilizar ese enorme piano!
EN: There's no true charts aboard, the compass is on the fritz... and we're running out of fuel... but this ship is going to Hong Kong if I have to get out and push.
ES: No tengo cartas naúticas abordo, el compás no es confiable... y navegamos con poco combustible... pero este barco irá a Hong Kong aunque tenga que bajarme y empujarlo.
EN: Confounded thing, always goes on the fritz right in the middle of a good program.
ES: Maldita radio. Siempre se apaga cuando hay un buen programa.
EN: They on the fritz again?
ES: ¿Vuelven a funcionar mal?
EN: The input's on the fritz.
ES: La entrada está estropeada.
EN: This whole camp is on the fritz.
ES: Este campamento es un caos total.
EN: Our radar's on the fritz.
ES: Nuestro radar está en el fritz.
EN: Pipes still on the fritz?
ES: ¿El baño sigue sin funcionar?

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).