misfiring

verb

present participle of misfire
as in failing
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

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of misfiring The second worker was clipped in the jaw by a misfiring nail gun. — Kevin Kruse, Forbes.com, 31 July 2026 Manchester United The disappointment of 2024-25 was somewhat rectified by a summer spent remodelling a misfiring attack. — Anantaajith Raghuraman, New York Times, 21 May 2026 The Celtics fell into an early 11-4 hole while misfiring on seven of their first nine shots. — Zack Cox, Boston Herald, 1 May 2026 Omega-3 fatty acids work by preventing the inflammatory response from misfiring, per Koff. — Kirsten Nunez, Martha Stewart, 5 Apr. 2026 While Heinrich ponders the misfiring neurons in the brain of a mass shooter, Jack’s pursuit of Mink—a character whose skin color and ambiguous ethnicity Jack remarks on repeatedly—leads him directly into the urban teeth of the War on Drugs. — Literary Hub, 1 Apr. 2026 Medication can help but the main treatment is ablation, when doctors thread catheters to the heart to burn misfiring tissue. — ABC News, 1 Apr. 2026 Then came the shot the crowd had been waiting for as the Pioneer had been misfiring all night from 3-point land. — Jerry McDonald, Mercury News, 15 Mar. 2026 Given Young’s music centers around modern, misfiring romance, the statement was unexpected. — Ramon Ramirez, Austin American Statesman, 13 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for misfiring
  1. failing
  2. stalling
  3. missing
Verb
  • Golden and Gluesenkamp Perez provided the margin to prevent a tie, which under House rules is the same as a measure failing outright.
    — Hailey Bullis, The Washington Examiner, 2 Sep. 2026
  • Set against the competitive world of Fleet Street, Murdoch purchases the failing Sun and recruits Lamb, a working-class editor with a very different idea of what a newspaper can be.
    — Lily Brown, PEOPLE, 2 Sep. 2026
Definition of failing
Verb
  • Remnants of Dolly, a stalling front from the southeast that is pushing wet weather into South Florida, and a low pressure system in the Gulf pumping moisture our way, are the wack weather problems that could wash away your outside activities.
    — Howard Cohen, Miami Herald, 2 Sep. 2026
  • That is why Gen AI adoption keeps stalling even in organizations where senior leaders have approved the budget, picked the platform, and announced the mandate.
    — Gleb Tsipursky, Harvard Business Review, 1 Sep. 2026
Definition of stalling
Verb
  • Wilson was back on the practice field Sunday, despite missing much of training camp with an injury, and will likely open the season as Seattle’s third-string running back.
    — Andrew Destin, New York Times, 31 Aug. 2026
  • The death toll in last week’s devastating flooding in Nepal has risen to 903 people, officials said Monday, as the number of those listed as missing nearly doubled to 4,247.
    — Rudy Chinchilla, NBC news, 31 Aug. 2026
Definition of missing

Browse Nearby Words

misfires
misfiring
misfit
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Cite this Entry

“Misfiring.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/misfiring. Accessed 5 Sep. 2026.

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