Skip to main content

Back-fire vs Fire back

back-fire

1. (of an engine) undergo a mistimed explosion in the cylinder with a loud noise:

  • Some engines have a nasty tendency to back-fire.

2. (of firearms) explode:

  • He was held liable for allowing an unqualified teacher to supervise a shooting competition during which a rifle backfired and injured a student.

3. light a fire ahead of an advancing prairie-fire in order to stop it:

  • Man learned to back-fire, so but very few settlers lost their lives from prairie-fires.

4. (of a plan, etc.) have the opposite effect to what was intended:

  • One of McGraw’s schemes back-fired on him.

fire back

1. return gunfire:

  • Hanson switched the Schmeisser regulator to single-shot and started to fire back.

2. = backfire 1:

  • If engine fires back into carburetor, do a few smooth injections with the primer pump.