Words similar to misfire

Example sentences for: misfire

How can you use “misfire” in a sentence? Here are some example sentences to help you improve your vocabulary:

But this rule would misfire now and then, when a mother is for some reason nurturing a non-offspring.
. Not riding the bus for fear of a NATO misfire."
The novelist's 47 th book is pronounced a "rare misfire" (Jeff Giles, Newsweek ). Set in 2020 after a nuclear war, it is lambasted as consisting mainly of an old man's "bombast" (Richard Eder, the Los Angeles Times ) about death, sex, and excrement.
One American dictionary, which I cannot identify, apparently defines the British slang term pooftah as a lady's man (possibly a misfire for an effeminate man, a secondary sense nowadays, after a male homosexual).
Why is space devoted to entries like misfire, Morse code, muster, nickname, nip short drink, nous brains, slate , etc.?