misfire

English

Etymology

Either a univerbation of earlier miss fire, or the compound mis- +‎ fire (or possibly a confluence of both).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (noun) /ˈmɪs.faɪ(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): (verb) /mɪsˈfaɪ(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) (noun and verb) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪs.faɪ.ɚ/
• Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)

Noun

misfire (plural misfires)

1. An act of misfiring.
2. (figurative) A failure.
   • 1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries:

     The fact is, Mr Carrados, Gertrude is a misfire. It was the surprise of her life (if I said "disappointment" you'd think me catty) when Mark married me, and she didn't set out to be pleasant to the interloper.

   • 2023 March 15, Brian X. Chen, Nico Grant, Karen Weise, “How Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant Lost the A.I. Race”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Amazon’s misfires with Alexa may have led Google astray, said a former manager who worked on Google Assistant.

Translations

An act of misfiring

• German: Fehlzündung (de) f (of a spark plug)
• Irish: loiceadh m
• Russian: осе́чка (ru) f (oséčka)

Verb

misfire (third-person singular simple present misfires, present participle misfiring, simple past and past participle misfired)

1. (firearms) To fail to discharge properly.
2. (of an engine) To fail to ignite in the proper sequence.
3. (of a nerve or neuron) To initiate an action potential without the proper stimulus.
4. (by extension) To fail to achieve the anticipated result.

   His practical joke misfired and he nearly burnt my left hand.

Derived terms

• misfirer

Translations

To fail to discharge properly

• Azerbaijani: ilişdirmək (az)
• French: s'enrayer
• Greek: αστοχώ (el) (astochó)
• Irish: loic
• Italian: incepparsi
• Russian: осечься (ru) pf (osečʹsja)

To fail to ignite in the proper sequence

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 失火 (zh) (shīhuǒ)

• Czech: střílet (cs)
• French: caler (fr)
• German: fehlzünden
• Spanish: encendido defectuoso m, fallo de encendido m
• Swedish: feltändning, snedtändning (sv) (colloquial)

To fail to achieve the anticipated result

• German: fehlschlagen (de)

See also

• back fire
• backfire
• hang fire