as in collapsed
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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Recent Examples of boomeranged
The most blatant of those on Sunday was Kelce converting a great opportunity into a play that boomeranged the other way.
—
Kansas City Star, 15 Sep. 2025
Kansas City Star, 15 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for boomeranged
Verb
-
The sofa was so collapsed that getting up from it felt like core strength training.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
10 Nov. 2025
-
And then on Thursday, after most of the show had been written, a man collapsed in the Oval Office, generating an instantly meme-able photograph of the president staring into the camera, looking oblivious to efforts to revive the prone victim at stage left.—
Erik Adams,
The Atlantic,
9 Nov. 2025
Verb
-
Early experiments, like the Humane AI pin, have flopped due to high prices and poor performance.—
Nicholas Gordon,
Fortune,
6 Jan. 2026
-
The huge painting of the naked woman flopped on a couch?—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
31 Dec. 2025
Verb
-
Politically, this strategy backfired on the mayor and ultimately his most vulnerable supporters.—
Daniel Wortel-London,
Washington Post,
5 Jan. 2026
-
His backup plan backfired in the moment, and the Super Bowl champions will start their postseason defense of the title as the 3 seed.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
4 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Boomeranged.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/boomeranged. Accessed 11 Jan. 2026.
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