🇵🇹Portuguese Source WordCode: PT

sair pela culatra

Pronunciation / Transliteration: sair pela culatra

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Backfire/ˈbækˌfaɪər/
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🇵🇹 Example Sentence in Portuguese:

"O plano dele acabou saindo pela culatra."

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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Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

Derived from the combination of the English words 'back' and 'fire', originally referring to an early internal combustion engine misfire or a controlled fire set to halt a wildfire. Over time, it evolved metaphorically in the late 19th and 20th centuries to describe any plan or action that produces the opposite, undesirable result of what was intended.

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