Word.ws English Dictionary

backfiring

backfiring noun: the occurrence of a backfire. Also the present participle and gerund of backfire.

Noun

backfiring (countable and uncountable, plural backfirings)

  1. The occurrence of a backfire.
    • Backfiring in mercury arc rectifiers has now been pinpointed as the primary cause of the Glasgow transformer failures. […] The chief causes of rectifier backfiring in the Glasgow units were overheating or unfavourable anode/cathode temperature differential; it has proved possible to overcome these...1962 July, “Failures of multiple-unit electric trains on British Railways”, in Modern Railways, page 53
  2. (figuratively) A failure that leads to further misfortune.

Also used as

backfiring is also the present participle and gerund of backfire.

Forms of backfiring

pluralbackfirings

Questions about backfiring

What does backfiring mean?
Backfiring means the occurrence of a backfire.
What part of speech is backfiring?
Backfiring is a noun.
What is the plural of backfiring?
The plural of backfiring is backfirings.

Words near backfiring in the dictionary

  1. backfire effects
  2. backfired
  3. backfirer
  4. backfirers
  5. backfires
  6. backfiring
  7. backfirings
  8. backfisch
  9. backfische
  10. backfisches
  11. backfist

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: backfiring (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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