sizzle

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To make the hissing sound characteristic of frying fat.
• intransitive verb To seethe with anger or indignation.
• intransitive verb To be very hot.
• intransitive verb To be very popular, exciting, or interesting.
• noun A hissing sound.
• noun The appeal of or the excitement generated by a product or service.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A hissing or sputtering sound.
• noun Extreme heat, as of a summer day.
• To make a hissing or sputtering sound, as a liquid when effervescing or acted on directly by heat; make a sound as of frying.
• To dry and shrivel up with hissing by the action of fire.
• To be very hot, as if hissing or shriveling.
• To dry or burn with or as if with a hissing sound: sometimes followed by up.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• intransitive verb Prov. Eng. & Colloq. U. S. To make a hissing sound; to fry, or to dry and shrivel up, with a hissing sound.
• noun Prov. Eng. & Colloq. U. S. A hissing sound, as of something frying over a fire.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb to make the sound of water hitting a hot surface
• verb to be exciting or dazzling
• noun countable the sound of water hitting a hot surface
• noun uncountable zing, zip, or pizazz; excitement.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb make a sound like frying fat
• verb seethe with deep anger or resentment
• noun a sizzling noise
• verb burn or sear with a sizzling sound