fiasco (fiasko)

[It. fiasco, a flask or bottle; far fiasco, make a fiasco, fail. "In Italy, when a singer fails to please, the audience shout 'Olà, olà, fiasco, perhaps in allusion to the bursting of a bottle."] 1. A flask; a bottle. See flask. He [Mr. T. A. Trollope) lived in Florence in the days of the Grand Duke,. when a fiasco of good Chianti could be had for a paul. Atheneum, Nov. 12, 1887, p. 653. 2. A failure in a musical or dramatic performance; an ignominious failure of any kind; a complete breakdown. Owing to the disunion of the Fenians themselves, the vigor of the administration, and the treachery of informers, the rebellion was a fiasco . W. S. Gregg, Irish Hist. for Eng. Readers, p. 169.