backfire
[verb]
Synonyms: fail, boomerang, disappoint, flop (informal), miscarry, rebound, recoil

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Contrasted words: come off, succeed, work out
Related Idioms: come to grief, go on the rocks, lay an egg
Related Words: fall (through), fizzle, miscarry, miss, ricochet

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English Thesaurus: fail, go wrong, not work, be unsuccessful, be a failure, ...

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

back‧fire /ˌbækˈfaɪə $ ˈbækfaɪr/ verb [intransitive]

1. if a plan or action backfires, it has the opposite effect to the one you intended:
The company’s new policy backfired when a number of employees threatened to quit.

2. if a car backfires, it makes a sudden loud noise because the engine is not working correctly

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

backfire
verb
ADV. badly, disastrously
PREP. on The surprise I had planned backfired on me.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

fail to not succeed – used about people, plans, methods etc:
The plan failed.
They failed to persuade her to change her mind.
This method never fails.
go wrong if something you do goes wrong, it fails after starting well:
The experiment went wrong when the chemicals combined to form a poisonous gas.
not work if something does not work, it does not do what you want it to do:
The drugs don’t work.
I tried to fix it with glue, but that didn’t work.
be unsuccessful /ˌʌnsəkˈsesfəl◂/ to not have the result you wanted:
His first attempt to get a teaching job was unsuccessful.
The search was unsuccessful.
be a failure to be unsuccessful, with the result that you have wasted your efforts:
The government’s 5-year plan to modernize the economy was a complete failure.
backfire if a plan or action backfires, it does the opposite of what it was intended to do:
His plan to get attention backfired, and instead of being promoted he lost his job.
in vain if you try to do something in vain, you fail to do it:
They tried in vain to save him.
All her efforts had been in vain.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲

backfire
v. To misfire; to have a reverse effect from what was intended.
Mimi's gossip about the Head of the Department backfired wizen people began to mistrust her.

[TahlilGaran] English Idioms Dictionary ▲