👉 In American English, "backfire" is a verb that means to cause or result in something else happening after it happened. For example: - "He was working on his project when the phone rang." - "I was surprised by the news I received." So, if you want to know how to use this term with your sentence, just follow these steps: 1. Identify the phrase that is being used. 2. Look for an action or state that happened after it happened. 3