misfire

Plural: misfires

Noun

an explosion that fails to occur
a failure to hit (or meet or find etc)
An act of misfiring.
A failure.

Verb

Verb Forms: misfired, misfiring, misfires

To fail to ignite or discharge, or to go wrong.
fail to fire or detonate
- "The guns misfired"
To fail to discharge properly.
To fail to ignite in the proper sequence.
To initiate an action potential without the proper stimulus.
To fail to achieve the anticipated result.

Examples

His bold Scrabble strategy misfired, leaving him with an even worse rack of letters.
His practical joke misfired and he nearly burnt my left hand.

Origin / Etymology

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

Synonyms

dud, miss

Scrabble Score: 12

misfire: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
misfire: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
misfire: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 13

misfire: valid Words With Friends Word