frontfire

To have the intended effect.

Verb

  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):
    • 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...
    • 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:

Origin

From front + fire, coined as an opposite for backfire (and not usually seen without it).

Forms

frontfires frontfiring frontfired