frontfire
English
editEtymology
editFrom front + fire, coined as an opposite for backfire (and not usually seen without it).
Verb
editfrontfire (third-person singular simple present frontfires, present participle frontfiring, simple past and past participle frontfired)
- To have the intended effect.
- 2002 August 18, Liam Griffin, “For the championship’s sake, it must be Tipp”, in Sunday Tribune (Dublin, Ireland):
- Talking of backfire, frontfire or whatever, John Carroll can give it both barrels, and simultaneously.
- 2003, Douglas Coupland, Hey Nostradamus!, →ISBN:
- I want to discuss that false psychic you paid to bring Heather messages from the dead. It was a thoughtful idea, but one that backfired and then, ultimately, in its own way, frontfired, giving Heather more hope than you’d imagine.
- 2010, Steve Pavlina, Personal Development for Smart People, →ISBN, page vi:
- I realized that speaking up now might backfire on me later, but there was a slim chance it could frontfire, too.