Backfire (Verb)
Meaning 1
Come back to the originator of an action with an undesired effect; "Your comments may backfire and cause you a lot of trouble"; "the political movie backlashed on the Democrats".
Classification
Verbs of political and social activities and events.
Synonyms
Hypernyms
Related Words
Meaning 2
Emit a loud noise as a result of undergoing a backfire; "My old car backfires all the time".
Classification
Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling.
Hypernyms
Related Words
Meaning 3
Set a controlled fire to halt an advancing forest to prairie fire.
Classification
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc..
Examples
- The firefighters decided to backfire as a last resort to starve the massive forest fire of fuel and halt its advance.
- A team of firefighters was sent to the western ridge to backfire and create a barrier between the forest and the encroaching flames.
- To prevent the prairie fire from reaching the nearby town, the emergency responders opted to backfire and clear a wide area of dry vegetation.
- Their strategy involved backfiring along the perimeter of the forest to thwart the relentless march of the blaze.
- After consulting the weather forecast, the team leader decided it was a good time to backfire and contain the fire's spread.