boomerang

as in to backfire
to have the reverse of the desired or expected effect the well-meaning gesture boomeranged, since he ended up being offended by it

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for boomerang
Verb
  • Trump's goal to reduce trade deficits while expanding markets for U.S. exports has backfired.
    Peter Aitken, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 June 2025
  • The changes backfired and customers left for local coffee shops and other chains and brewed more coffee at home.
    Maya Blackstone, CNN Money, 27 June 2025
Verb
  • When stress hit, the house of cards collapsed, and failures cascaded like dominoes, wiping out billions in customer funds.
    Roomy Khan, Forbes.com, 30 June 2025
  • That’s how a building managed to go without a critical earthquake retrofit for more than a century before its brick walls collapsed in 2003.
    Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times, 29 June 2025
Verb
  • Meta’s first glasses, the Ray-Ban Stories, flopped in 2021.
    Ani Freedman, Fortune, 20 June 2025
  • In spite of high critical praise and a promising opening weekend, the Marvel film only amassed $380 million against a production budget of $180 million, officially flopping.
    Michileen Martin, MSNBC Newsweek, 19 June 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Boomerang.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/boomerang. Accessed 5 Jul. 2025.

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