retrofire

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noun

The firing of rockets directed opposite to a craft's direction of motion in order to slow down.

“The spaceship needs to turn around so its retrofire rockets slow it down and put it in a lower orbit.”

OriginEnglish fire ← Middle English fyr ← Old English fȳr →
Scrabble 12
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Meanings

nounretrofire (plural retrofires)

plural retrofires

  1. The firing of rockets directed opposite to a craft's direction of motion in order to slow down.

    The spaceship needs to turn around so its retrofire rockets slow it down and put it in a lower orbit.

verbretrofire (third-person singular simple present retrofires, present participle retrofiring, simple past and past participle retrofired)

present singular third person retrofires · participle present retrofiring · participle past retrofired · past retrofired

  1. To fire rockets of a craft in the direction opposite to its direction of motion in order to slow down.

Origin

  1. Proto-Italic*wre-
  2. Latinre-
  3. Latinretrō
  4. Englishretro-
  5. Proto-Indo-European*péh₂wr̥
  6. Proto-Germanic*fōr
  7. Proto-West Germanic*fuir
  8. Old Englishfȳr
  9. Middle Englishfyr
  10. Englishfire
  11. Englishretrofire

From retro- + fire.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

retrofire. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/retrofire

MLA

“retrofire.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/retrofire. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “retrofire,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/retrofire.

Source: retrofire on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.