frontfire

present singular third person frontfires · participle present frontfiring · participle past frontfired · past frontfired

1. To have the intended effect.

   Talking of backfire, frontfire or whatever, John Carroll can give it both barrels, and simultaneously.

   2002 August 18, Liam Griffin, “For the championship’s sake, it must be Tipp”, in Sunday Tribune (Dublin, Ireland)

   2 more examples

   I want to discuss that false psychic you paid to bring Heather messages from the dead. It was a thoughtful idea, but one that backfired and then, ultimately, in its own way, frontfired, giving Heather more hope than you’d imagine.

   2003, Douglas Coupland, Hey Nostradamus!, →ISBN

   I realized that speaking up now might backfire on me later, but there was a slim chance it could frontfire, too.

   2010, Steve Pavlina, Personal Development for Smart People, →ISBN, page vi