Meaning & use
misfire
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Meanings
verbintransitive
Of a gun, engine, or similar device, to fail to fire or work properly when it is supposed to.
Grammar: No object: the thing itself misfires.
Patterns
- the gun misfired
- the engine misfired
The soldier pulled the trigger, but the rifle misfired.
If the engine misfires, you may feel the car shake.
The fireworks misfired and exploded too low.
verbintransitivefigurative
Of a plan, joke, remark, or attempt, to fail to have the intended effect or result.
Grammar: No object; often used of actions or events that go wrong.
Patterns
- the plan misfired
- the joke misfired
- the attempt misfired
His joke misfired and made everyone uncomfortable.
The marketing campaign misfired and sales actually dropped.
The surprise party misfired when she found out early.
Word forms
| third person singular | misfires |
|---|---|
| past tense | misfired |
| past participle | misfired |
| -ing form | misfiring |
Common combinations
- misfire badly
- The engine misfired badly and the car stalled.
- a misfire (noun)
- The whole event was a misfire from start to finish.
- misfire on all cylinders
- The old engine misfired on all cylinders.
- the plan misfired
- The plan misfired because nobody followed the instructions.
Synonyms and how they differ
- fail
- More general; 'fail' can describe any unsuccessful action, while 'misfire' suggests a specific mechanism or attempt going wrong.
- backfire
- Often used when a plan has the opposite effect to what was intended; 'misfire' just means it didn't work as planned.
- flop
- Informal and usually about a product, show, or idea being a complete failure; 'misfire' can be less final.
Opposites
Word family
- misfire noun
- An occasion when something fails to work or have the intended effect.
Commonly confused: misfire or backfire?
misfire vs backfire
Backfire means a plan has the opposite effect, often harming the person who made it; misfire simply means it didn't work.
Practice
The comedian's joke ______ and no one laughed.
Choose one answer.
The past tense 'misfired' is needed to describe a completed action. 'Backfired' would mean the joke had the opposite effect, like making people angry, which is not quite the same as just failing to get a laugh. 'Misfiring' is the -ing form and doesn't fit the simple past. 'Misfire' is the base form and would be ungrammatical here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “misfire”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.