verb [V]
1 ~ (on sb) to have the opposite effect to the one intended, with bad or dangerous results:
Unfortunately the plan backfired.
2 (of an engine or a vehicle) to make a sudden noise like an explosion
compareMISFIRE
Rate this entry
About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for backfire is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Does backfire appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — backfire appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.