misfire
/ˈmɪs.faɪ.ɚ/ noun, verb
Forms misfires misfiring misfired
- noun An act of misfiring.
- noun (figurative) A failure.
- verb (firearms) To fail to discharge properly.
- verb (of an engine) To fail to ignite in the proper sequence.
- verb (of a nerve or neuron) To initiate an action potential without the proper stimulus.
- verb (by extension) To fail to achieve the anticipated result. “His practical joke misfired and he nearly burnt my left hand.”
Synonyms
Etymology
Either a univerbation of earlier miss fire, or the compound mis- + fire (or possibly a confluence of both).
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “misfire”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details