Backfire

How to spell backfire

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce backfire

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does backfire mean?

1. verbTo produce a result that is the opposite of what was intended, harming the person who acted.
2. verbOf an engine, to make a loud bang caused by fuel igniting in the wrong place or at the wrong time.
3. nounA loud bang produced when fuel ignites at the wrong moment in an engine.

Backfire in a sentence

• verb

  The aggressive pricing strategy could easily backfire and lose us loyal customers.

• verb

  The old motorcycle would backfire with a sharp crack whenever he changed gear.

• noun

  The sudden backfire from the car startled everyone on the quiet street.

• verb

  His attempt to flatter the manager may backfire if she senses the insincerity.

• verb

  A poorly tuned engine may backfire through the exhaust on a cold morning.

• noun

  Mechanics traced the backfire to a faulty ignition timing.

Where does backfire come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Backfire is a transparent English compound, joining the everyday word 'back', from Old English 'bæc' meaning the rear or reverse direction, with 'fire', from Old English 'fyr' meaning flame or the discharge of a weapon. It first appeared in American English in the nineteenth century, originally describing a fire deliberately lit ahead of an advancing wildfire so that the two flames meet and starve each other of fuel. With the rise of the internal combustion engine around the 1890s and early 1900s, the word took on its mechanical meaning: a premature or mistimed explosion that travels the wrong way through an engine, producing a loud bang. From that idea of a force going in reverse came the now common figurative sense of a plan or scheme that rebounds on the person who set it in motion. The spelling is mercifully regular, since both halves are familiar words, and the only thing to remember is that they are written solid, with no space and no hyphen.

How the word is built

• back (in the reverse direction)
• fire (to discharge or ignite)