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Definition of Backfire
1. Verb. Come back to the originator of an action with an undesired effect. "Your comments may backfire and cause you a lot of trouble"
Generic synonyms: Come About, Fall Out, Go On, Hap, Happen, Occur, Pass, Pass Off, Take Place
Derivative terms: Backlash
2. Noun. The backward escape of gases and unburned gunpowder after a gun is fired.
Generic synonyms: Blowup, Detonation, Explosion
Specialized synonyms: Back-blast, Backblast
3. Verb. Emit a loud noise as a result of undergoing a backfire. "The cars backfire down the avenue"; "My old car backfires all the time"
4. Noun. A loud noise made by the explosion of fuel in the manifold or exhaust of an internal combustion engine.
5. Verb. Set a controlled fire to halt an advancing forest to prairie fire.
6. Noun. A fire that is set intentionally in order to slow an approaching forest fire or grassfire by clearing a burned area in its path.
7. Noun. A miscalculation that recoils on its maker.
Generic synonyms: Miscalculation, Misestimation, Misreckoning
Derivative terms: Boomerang
Definition of Backfire
1. v. i. To have or experience a back fire or back fires; -- said of an internal-combustion engine.
Definition of Backfire
1. Verb. (Of a gun or cannon) to fire in the opposite direction, for example due to an obstruction in the barrel. ¹
2. Verb. To fail in a manner that brings down further misfortune. ¹
3. Noun. (firefighting) (alternative spelling of back fire) ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Backfire
1. to result in undesirable consequences [v -FIRED, -FIRING, -FIRES]
Lexicographical Neighbors of Backfire
Literary usage of Backfire
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. El Salvador at War: An Oral History of Conflict from the 1979 Insurrection edited by Max G. Manwaring, Court Prisk (1995)
"Their Plan Witt backfire Colonel Oscar Edgardo Casanova Vejar—I would say that
the subversion has practically lost its military capacity. ..."
2. The Other Side of the Table: the Soviet approach to arms control by Michael Mandelbaum (1990)
"In 1974 the Soviets had begun to deploy a new medium-range bomber, code-named
backfire in the West, at a rate of approximately three aircraft per month. ..."
3. Natural Gas and Gasoline Journal (1917)
"The next test was for Natural gas 1200 Artificial gas 608 The aim was to see if
burners set for natural gas of 1200 BTU's would backfire on 600 BTU gas. ..."
4. The Submarine in War and Peace: Its Developments and Its Possibilities by Simon Lake (1918)
"I then discovered that the engine would occasionally backfire out into the ...
In case of a backfire, the check valve automatically closed and the gases ..."
5. C3I: Issues of Command & Control edited by Thomas P. Coakley (1994)
"Submarines are very good in regard to knowing what's around them, and they're
not going to pop up to the surface with a backfire or something sitting over ..."
6. Aircraft Mechanics Handbook by Fred Herbert Colvin (1918)
"backfire Protection.—Positive and reliable means should be provided to prevent
backfire spreading beyond the ..."
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