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🇯🇵Japanese Source WordCode: JA

裏目に出る

Pronunciation / Transliteration: urameni deru

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Backfire/ˈbækˌfaɪər/
verbnounCEFR C1 (Advanced)Top #8500 frequency
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🇯🇵 Example Sentence in Japanese:

"彼の作戦は裏目に出てしまった。"

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As verb
  1. 1

    To have the opposite result of what was intended.

    "His plan to trick his colleagues backfired and he ended up looking foolish."
As noun
  1. 1

    An undesired, unexpected, and opposite result of a plan or action.

    "The strict new policy turned out to be a complete backfire for management."
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Thesaurus & Semantic Spectrum

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

Derived from the mechanical term describing an early or premature explosion in the cylinder of an internal combustion engine, originating in the late 19th century. By the early 20th century, the term underwent a metaphorical shift to describe plans, actions, or strategies that produce the exact opposite, undesirable result of what was intended.

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