as in to fail
to go wrong
their scheme to rob the bank misfired disastrously and landed them all in jail
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in catastrophe
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of misfire
Jackson Thompson, FOXNews.com, 4 Jan. 2026
Others misfired when momentum reversed, financing dried up or leverage cut the wrong way.
—Bloomberg, Mercury News, 29 Dec. 2025
Calmatters, Mercury News, 23 Oct. 2025
Those protocols, the officer added, required firing to be suspended until the root cause of the apparent misfire is determined.
—Paul Sisson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for misfire
Verb
Mayfield completed his first six passes before misfiring on a cross-field, 13-yard toss to Payne Durham, who was wide open in the end zone.
—Noun
By Deborah Brennan, CalMatters California lawmakers are demanding answers after a live fire demonstration over Camp Pendleton Saturday led to a misfire that rained shrapnel on Interstate 5, striking two California Highway Patrol vehicles.
—Recent Examples of Synonyms for misfire
Verb
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If the settlement failed to cover the amount owed, some funders went after the women for the remainder.—
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Owner Mark Davis has failed for years to find answers, and this time around, Tom Brady appears to be taking control of the rebuild.—
Noun
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Even fewer want American bombs dropping all over the globe, leaving a mess that will cost billions of taxpayer dollars to fix while oil executives get invited to meetings at the White House to split up the spoils.—
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About 20 Air Force combat planes, including F-15Es, A-10s and AC-130J gunships, as well as MQ-9 Reaper drones and Jordanian F-16 fighter jets, fired more than 90 bombs and missiles toward at least 35 targets Saturday, according to Capt.—
Verb
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In California, Angie Rodriguez, an asylum seeker held in the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield, miscarried in July.—
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So his wife miscarried five more times before Nile and died of ovarian cancer.—
Noun
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But thanks to some small wardrobe issues and then some bigger mic issues — and the biggest issue of it just not entirely connecting — the song was a flop.—
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Mirren played Harrison Ford's wife in the film, which was a commercial flop.—
Verb
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Ellison’s office had expressed concern that in future cases, companies could use litigation to stall for time and likewise run out the clock.—
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An effort to set that up stalled in the California legislature last year, but there's a growing pressure to revive something like it.—
Noun
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How messy could this negotiation get with his agent, David Mulugheta, who also represented Micah Parsons in that fiasco last offseason?—
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Then came the shocking fiasco in New Orleans, a 40-22 loss to the Eagles.—
Noun
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Patients’ failure to take their medicine as prescribed is a major challenge that contributes to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths and billions of dollars in health care costs annually.—
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Continue reading … SKIDDING TO SAFETY – All plane tires burst on Boeing 767 during harrowing landing failure.—
Noun
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The route is washboarded and deeply rutted in several long stretches, as well as prone to washouts.—
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When unusually heavy rainfall rendered that year a washout on the farming front, Sue got a job at Beth’s Farm Kitchen, a prominent jam and chutney maker nearby.—
Cite this Entry
“Misfire.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/misfire. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
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