Backfire vs Reverse - What's the difference?
backfire | reverse |
(Of a gun or cannon) to fire in the opposite direction, for example due to an obstruction in the barrel.
To fail in a manner that brings down further misfortune.
Opposite, contrary; going in the opposite direction.
Pertaining to engines, vehicle movement etc. moving in a direction opposite to the usual direction.
(rail transport, of points) to be in the non-default position; to be set for the lesser-used route.
Turned upside down; greatly disturbed.
* Gower
(botany) Reversed.
*, Bk.XVIII:
*:they three smote hym at onys with their spearys, and with fors of themselff they smote Sir Launcelottis horse revers to the erthe.
*1963 , Donal Serrell Thomas, Points of Contact :
*:The man was killed to feed his image fat / Within this pictured world that ran reverse , / Where miracles alone were ever plain.
The opposite of something.
The act of going backwards; a reversal.
* Lamb
A piece of misfortune; a setback.
* 1990 , (Peter Hopkirk), The Great Game , Folio Society 2010, p. 309:
The tails side of a coin, or the side of a medal or badge that is opposite the obverse.
The side of something facing away from a viewer, or from what is considered the front; the other side.
The gear setting of an automobile that makes it travel backwards.
A thrust in fencing made with a backward turn of the hand; a backhanded stroke.
(surgery) A turn or fold made in bandaging, by which the direction of the bandage is changed.
To turn something around such that it faces in the opposite direction.
To turn something inside out or upside down.
* Sir W. Temple
To transpose the positions of two things.
To change totally; to alter to the opposite.
* Shakespeare
* Sir Walter Scott
(obsolete) To return, come back.
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.4:
(obsolete) To turn away; to cause to depart.
* Spenser
(obsolete) To cause to return; to recall.
* Spenser
(legal) To revoke a law, or to change a decision into its opposite.
(ergative) To cause a mechanism or a vehicle to operate or move in the opposite direction to normal.
(chemistry) To change the direction of a reaction such that the products become the reactants and vice-versa.
(rail transport) To place a set of points in the reverse position
(rail transport, intransitive, of points) to move from the normal position to the reverse position
To overthrow; to subvert.
* Alexander Pope
* Rogers
As verbs the difference between backfire and reverse
is that backfire is (of a gun or cannon) to fire in the opposite direction, for example due to an obstruction in the barrel while reverse is .As a noun backfire
is (firefighting).backfire
English
Verb
(backfir)- His attempt to make money by importing luxury cars horribly backfired when fuel prices tripled.
Anagrams
*reverse
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- We ate the meal in reverse order, starting with dessert and ending with the starter.
- The mirror showed us a reverse view of the scene.
- He selected reverse gear.
- He found the sea diverse / With many a windy storm reverse .
- a reverse shell
Antonyms
* (rail transport) normalDerived terms
* reverse discriminationAdverb
(en adverb)Noun
(en noun)- We believed the Chinese weren't ready for us. In fact, the reverse was true.
- By a reverse of fortune, Stephen becomes rich.
- In fact, though the Russians did not yet know it, the British had met with a reverse .
- (Shakespeare)
Derived terms
* in reverseVerb
(revers)- A pyramid reversed may stand upon his point if balanced by admirable skill.
- Reverse the doom of death.
- She reversed the conduct of the celebrated vicar of Bray.
- Bene they all dead, and laide in dolefull herse? / Or doen they onely sleepe, and shall againe reuerse ?
- And that old dame said many an idle verse, / Out of her daughter's heart fond fancies to reverse .
- And to his fresh remembrance did reverse / The ugly view of his deformed crimes.
- to reverse a judgment, sentence, or decree
- These can divide, and these reverse , the state.
- Custom reverses even the distinctions of good and evil.