[syn: backfire, backlash, recoil]
2. emit a loud noise as a result of undergoing a backfire;
- Example: "My old car backfires all the time"
3. set a controlled fire to halt an advancing forest to prairie fire;
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
backfire \backfire\, back fire \back fire\
1. A fire started ahead of a forest or prairie fire to burn
only against the wind, so that when the two fires meet
both must go out for lack of fuel.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
2.
(a) A premature explosion in the cylinder of a gas or oil
engine during the exhaust or the compression stroke,
tending to drive the piston in a direction reverse to
that in which it should travel; also called a knock
or ping.
(b) an explosion in the exhaust passages of an internal
combustion engine.
[Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC] Backfire
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Backfire \Back"fire`\ Back-fire \Back"-fire`\, v. i.
1. (Engin.) To have or experience a back fire or back fires;
-- said of an internal-combustion engine.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
2. Of a Bunsen or similar air-fed burner, to light so that
the flame proceeds from the internal gas jet instead of
from the external jet of mixed gas and air. --
Back"-fir`ing, n.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
backfire
n 1: the backward escape of gases and unburned gunpowder after a
gun is fired [syn: blowback, backfire]
2: a loud noise made by the explosion of fuel in the manifold or
exhaust of an internal combustion engine
3: a fire that is set intentionally in order to slow an
approaching forest fire or grassfire by clearing a burned
area in its path
4: a miscalculation that recoils on its maker [syn: backfire,
boomerang]
v 1: come back to the originator of an action with an undesired
effect; "Your comments may backfire and cause you a lot of
trouble" [syn: backfire, backlash, recoil]
2: emit a loud noise as a result of undergoing a backfire; "My
old car backfires all the time"
3: set a controlled fire to halt an advancing forest to prairie
fire