| 释义 |
▪ I. back-fire, n.
[Cf. back-firing vbl. n.]
1. A fire purposely lighted ahead of an advancing prairie-fire or bushfire in order to deprive it of fuel and so extinguish it. N. Amer. and Austral.
1839‘Mrs. Mary Clavers’ New Home xxix. 191 There was nothing now but to make a ‘back-fire’! 1905Terms Forestry & Logging s.v., The back fire is intended to burn only against the wind. 1944Living off Land vii. 154 To start a backfire rapidly..flame-throwers are used. 1959Globe & Mail (Toronto) 23 July 2/1 Setting a backfire against a prairie fire.
2. A premature ignition or explosion in an internal-combustion engine, causing the piston to be driven in the opposite direction to that in which it should travel; also, an explosion in the exhaust-pipe of such an engine.
1897G. D. Hiscox Gas Engines 86 Misfire or back-fire explosives. 1902A. C. Harmsworth et al. Motors 169 These ‘back fires’ are the result of what is called ‘premature ignition’. 1903Mecredy Dict. Motoring s.v., An explosion in the silencer is also called, but incorrectly, a back fire. 1904A. B. F. Young Compl. Motorist ix. 215 This is necessary in order to prevent a back-fire of the engine in starting it. 1968Globe & Mail (Toronto) 3 Feb. 11/2 She heard a small explosion ‘like the backfire of a car’.
b. fig. (Also attrib.)
1925A. S. M. Hutchinson One Incr. Purpose i. xx. 126 The outrageous sale of this upstart work..justified it in being the subject of back-fire notices in the critical journals. 1927Daily Express 22 Sept. 2/5 If Tunney, smarting under the Billingsgate backfire,..tries to go in and knock Dempsey out.
▪ II. back-fire, v.
[f. prec. or back-formation from back-firing vbl. n.]
1. intr. To light a fire ahead of an advancing prairie-fire in order to deprive it of fuel. N. Amer.
1886P. G. Ebbutt Emigrant Life in Kansas 54 We all..set to work to ‘back fire’ from the stables, and were only just in time to save the whole place from destruction, by burning a sufficiently wide piece of grass off, and thus stopping the rush of fire. 1912C. Dawson Pioneer Tales 291 Man learned to back-fire, and plow fire-guards, so but very few settlers lost their lives from prairie-fires. 1929C. R. Cooper Challenge of Bush 237 At other points they back⁓fired, taking advantage of every change of wind.
2. Of an internal-combustion engine or its fuel: to ignite or explode prematurely. Also transf., e.g. of a firearm.
1902Kipling Traffics & Discov. (1904) 184 That car..back-fired superbly. 1906Westm. Gaz. 23 Oct. 4/2 Some engines are obstinate starters. Others have a nasty tendency to back-fire. 1909Ibid. 13 Oct. 7/4, I think the gas had backfired. 1938M. K. Rawlings Yearling iv. 34 Penny pulled the trigger. The explosion that followed had a sizzling sound, and Penny fell backward. The gun had back-fired. 1961Listener 9 Nov. 773/3 A seventh valve, called the by-pass, that takes over momentarily if any of the other valves should back-fire.
fig.1912C. Mathewson Pitching xiii. 300 One of McGraw's schemes back-fired on him. 1953Encounter Nov. 70/1 But the reign of terror backfired.
3. trans. use of prec.
1924Glasgow Herald 24 June 8 The great gun backfired its charge of 1800 lb. of powder. 1929H. V. Morton In Search of Scotl. iii. 76 The horrid gelatinous mass..back⁓fired a dark inky fluid into the water. 1962Which? Mar. 87/2 The Wastemaster [sc. waste-disposer], without a splashguard, tended to backfire scraps. |