noun
Meaning 1
An act of misfiring.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
misfire
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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/ˈmɪs.faɪ(ɹ)/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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General-American: /ˈmɪs.faɪ.ɚ/
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rhymes with -aɪə(ɹ)
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/mɪsˈfaɪ(ɹ)/
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CMU ARPABET: M IH0 S F AY1 ER0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
A failure.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: figuratively
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 3
To fail to discharge properly.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: engineering, firearms, government, military, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, politics, tools, war, weaponry
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 4
To fail to ignite in the proper sequence.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 5
To initiate an action potential without the proper stimulus.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 6
To fail to achieve the anticipated result.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: broadly
Examples
- His practical joke misfired and he nearly burnt my left hand.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 7
a failure to hit (or meet or find etc)
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: miss
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: failure
noun
Meaning 8
an explosion that fails to occur
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: dud
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: breakdown, equipment failure
verb
Meaning 9
fail to fire or detonate
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- The guns misfired
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: fail, go bad, give way, die, give out, conk out, go, break, break down
History
Etymology
Either a univerbation of earlier miss fire, or the compound mis- + fire (or possibly a confluence of both).
Across languages
Translations
18 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- German: Fehlzündung — An act of misfiring
- Irish: loiceadh — An act of misfiring
- Russian: осе́чка (oséčka) — An act of misfiring
- Azerbaijani: ilişdirmək — To fail to discharge properly
- French: s'enrayer — To fail to discharge properly
- Greek: αστοχώ (astochó) — To fail to discharge properly
- Irish: loic — To fail to discharge properly
- Italian: incepparsi — To fail to discharge properly
- Russian: осечься (osečʹsja) — To fail to discharge properly
- Chinese Mandarin: 失火 (shīhuǒ) — To fail to ignite in the proper sequence
- Czech: střílet — To fail to ignite in the proper sequence
- French: caler — To fail to ignite in the proper sequence
- German: fehlzünden — To fail to ignite in the proper sequence
- Spanish: encendido defectuoso — To fail to ignite in the proper sequence
- Spanish: fallo de encendido — To fail to ignite in the proper sequence
- Swedish: feltändning — To fail to ignite in the proper sequence
- Swedish: snedtändning — To fail to ignite in the proper sequence
- German: fehlschlagen — To fail to achieve the anticipated result