backfire

Wikipedia

English

Etymology

From back + fire.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /bækˈfaɪə(ɹ)/

Verb

backfire (third-person singular simple present backfires, present participle backfiring, simple past and past participle backfired)

1. (Of a gun or cannon) to fire in the opposite direction, for example due to an obstruction in the barrel.
2. To fail in a manner that brings down further misfortune.

   His attempt to make money by importing luxury cars horribly backfired when fuel prices tripled.

Translations

fail

• Dutch: falen (nl)
• Finnish: epäonnistua (fi), kostautua (fi)
• French: se retourner contre (fr), avoir l'effet inverse (fr)
• German: fehlschlagen (de), nach hinten losgehen (de)
• Italian: avere effetto contrario (it)

• Portuguese: sair pela culatra (pt)
• Russian: приводить к обратным результатам (ru) (privodítʹ k obrátnym rezulʹtátam) impf., привести к обратным результатам (ru) (privestí k obrátnym rezulʹtátam) pf.
• Serbo-Croatian: vratiti se (sh), obiti se o glavu (sh)
• Spanish: salir el tiro por la culata (es), tener efecto retroactivo (es), tener contraefecto (es)

Noun

backfire (plural backfires)

1. (firefighting) Alternative spelling of back fire.

Anagrams

• fireback