backfiring

English

Verb

backfiring

1. present participle and gerund of backfire

Noun

backfiring (countable and uncountable, plural backfirings)

1. A failure that leads to further misfortune.
2. The occurrence of a backfire.
   • 1962 July, “Failures of multiple-unit electric trains on British Railways”, in Modern Railways, page 53:

     Backfiring in mercury arc rectifiers has now been pinpointed as the primary cause of the Glasgow transformer failures. […] The chief causes of rectifier backfiring in the Glasgow units were overheating or unfavourable anode/cathode temperature differential; it has proved possible to overcome these, although occasional backfires do still occur.