miss fire


Fail to achieve the anticipated result, as in Recycling cardboard seemed like a good idea but it missed fire. First recorded in 1727, this phrase originally described a firearm failing to go off and has been used figuratively since the mid-1800s.

Words Nearby miss fire

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

How to use miss fire in a sentence

  • Theres lots o marksmen in this world cant even make a gun go off, an yet they cant miss fire in the next world.

    Cursed | George Allan England
  • An ordinary gun might miss fire—such things have been known before now—but a cornstalk gun, never!

    The Bishop and the Boogerman | Joel Chandler Harris
  • Just then the thought occurred to me, “What would be my fate should my gun miss fire?”

    Adventures in Africa | W.H.G. Kingston
  • I prayed that my arm might be nerved, that my hand might not tremble, and that my rifle might not miss fire.

    Dick Onslow | W.H.G. Kingston
  • "I seldom miss fire," said Mr. Symmes, with a look of honest pride.