Past tense of backfire
regular verb
The past tense of backfire is backfired. The past participle is also backfired.
Forms of backfire
| Base form (V1) | backfire /ˈbækfaɪə(ɹ)/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | backfired |
| Past participle (V3) | backfired |
| Present participle | backfiring |
| Third person singular | backfires |
Backfired in a sentence
- Any time a car backfired or a police siren howled, they would dive under desks or tables instinctively.1991 February 4, Ayofemi Folayan, “No Sounds Of Silence”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 28, page 7
- His attempt to make money by importing luxury cars backfired horribly when fuel prices tripled.
- His underhanded trick backfired and he was disqualified.From the entry underhanded
- Calvin: Our great plan backfired and I'm the one who got soaked!a. 1994, Bill Watterson, Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat, Andrews McMeel, page 168. From the entry ignominy
- In fact the whole thing sorta backfired on old Chuck—and on me and Pete too.1993 July, William R. Scott, “Sort of a Hero”, in Scott Stuckey, editor, Boys’ Life, volume LXXXIII, number 7, Irving, Tex.: Boy Scouts of…. From the entry sorta
Meaning of backfire
- noun 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 the wrong direction.
- noun An explosion in the exhaust passages of an internal combustion engine.
- noun An explosion in other equipment.
Questions about the past tense of backfire
- What is the past tense of backfire?
- The past tense of backfire is backfired.
- What is the past participle of backfire?
- The past participle of backfire is backfired.
- Is backfire a regular or irregular verb?
- Backfire is a regular verb: its past tense adds -d.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: backfire (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this page: “Past tense of backfire.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/backfire. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.