to backfire
9
4.8
- verb
- /ˈbækˌfaɪər/
- "Our driver had left the BTR's engine running in his haste to get away from the bees, and it backfired.
- a car backfired
- the engine backfired
- a truck backfired
Examples
-
The damn thing backfires again.
Fiction book (1998) -
The old engine whined, turned over, and finally caught, missing and backfiring on the low-grade gasoline the Germans gave the police.
Fiction book (2002) -
That's a truck backfire, Ma.
-
I might hear a car backfire and mistake it for gunfire.
Blog text (19) -
From the street below, a car backfired several times, the sound echoing loudly through the apartment.
Fiction book (1990) -
Now and then it would backfire—kaboom!—loud as a field gun.
Fiction book (1998) -
Shaking my head, I glimpse, briefly, an exterminator's truck, backfiring as it rattly-clacks down the street.
Fiction book (1999) -
Most loud bangs are not bombs, they're scooters backfiring.
-
The boat slices ahead along the atoll's outermost palm border, and the aft motor backfires with puffs of smoke.
Fiction book (1995) -
As he drove his old car, it started to backfire loudly, startling the pedestrians on the sidewalk.
Antonyms
Phrasal Verbs
How Loud
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word backfire comes from back ('behind') and fire ('flame'). If an engine sends a small explosion or flame out the back and makes a loud bang, we say the engine backfires.