0 past simple and past participle of backfire --
1 (of a plan) to have the opposite result from the one you intended: --
2 (of an engine) to make a loud noise as a result of fuel burning too early: --
In such circumstances, it is scarcely surprising that it backfired.
Odd as it may seem to us today, swing identified itself as the avant-garde - or at least it did so until its discursive strategy backfired.
The success of this policy, however, backfired.
But this policy now backfired.
In the event, the plan backfired.
Benachenhou stresses that policy mistakes before 1993 were so serious that attempts to correct them often backfired.
The case backfired when the liberal mayor was accused of gross mismanagement.
Attempts to appeal to smallholders and the urban middle class, however, backfired.
