When a gun or engine fails to work properly, or when a plan or joke fails to work as intended.
From the prefix 'mis-' (meaning badly or wrongly) combined with 'fire' (to discharge a weapon or ignite an engine). The word emerged in the 1800s as firearms and engines became common.
Misfire started as a literal term for when a gun jammed, but now we use it for any plan that goes wrong—even jokes that don't get laughs! This shows how weapon and machine vocabulary gets adopted into everyday speech when technology becomes central to society.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.