Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One who slanders, calumniates, or speaks ill of the absent.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who backbites; a secret calumniator or detractor.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun person who says nasty things about another person behind the second person's back: that is, out of sight and hearing of the second person.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun one who attacks the reputation of another by slander or libel
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Accordingly a backbiter is a murderer _occasionally, _ since by his words he gives another man an occasion for hating or despising his neighbor.
Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province Aquinas Thomas
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Reply Obj. 1: A tale-bearer is called a backbiter in so far as he speaks ill of another; yet he differs from a backbiter since he intends not to speak ill as such, but to say anything that may stir one man against another, though it be good simply, and yet has a semblance of evil through being unpleasant to the hearer.
Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province Aquinas Thomas
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'And many other are there, good and great; and one, Loki, fair of face, ill in temper and fickle of mood, is called the backbiter of the Asa, and speaker of evil redes and shame of all gods and men; he has above all that craft called sleight, and cheats all in all things.
The Story of the Volsungs Anonymous 1873
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The "backbiter" is frequently seen, in most unlovely form, and two persons gossiping with an "unseen witness" in the shape of an avenging friend, looking on and waiting for his opportunity to strike!
Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages A Description of Mediaeval Workmanship in Several of the Departments of Applied Art, Together with Some Account of Special Artisans in the Early Renaissance Julia de Wolf Gibbs Addison
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19, “And meddle not with such as flatter with their mouth,” as indeed commonly they who reproach the absent, flatter the present; a backbiter is a face-flatterer.
The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning Hugh Binning 1640
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‘And many other are there, good and great; and one, Loki, fair of face, ill in temper and fickle of mood, is called the backbiter of the Asa, and speaker of evil redes and shame of all gods and men; he has above all that craft called sleight, and cheats all in all things.
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I normally love this show, but seriously, can we try to keep the reality-tv backbiter attitude out of it?
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And amid a hail of derisory images came the raucous cry of a backbiter: "Who stole the weather, Powell?"
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She is a snake a backbiter a backstabber a lier a cheat and she learned well from hubby Bill the cheater, lier, robber and they both are suffering from ADD and Bipolar sickness.
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McCain is not so much a maverick as he is a backbiter.
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