Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

A fire started ahead of a forest or prairie fire to burn only against the wind, so that when the two fires meet both must go out for lack of fuel.

(a) A premature explosion in the cylinder of a gas or oil engine during the exhaust or the compression stroke, tending to drive the piston in a direction reverse to that in which it should travel; also called a knock or ping.

an explosion in the exhaust passages of an internal combustion engine.

(Engineering) To have or experience a back fire or back fires; -- said of an internal-combustion engine.

Of a Bunsen or similar air-fed burner, to light so that the flame proceeds from the internal gas jet instead of from the external jet of mixed gas and air.