Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The act of slandering the absent; secret calumny.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Secret slander; detraction.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The action of
slandering a person without that person's knowledge. - adjective A person who slanders or speaks badly of a person without that person's knowledge.
- verb Present participle of
backbite .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Another form of art world backbiting is simply to never offer praise for or speak about a particular artist.
Daniel Grant: There's a Lot of Backbiting Among Artists Daniel Grant 2010
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Another form of art world backbiting is simply to never offer praise for or speak about a particular artist.
Daniel Grant: There's a Lot of Backbiting Among Artists Daniel Grant 2010
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He offered friendship to many people and never engaged in backbiting and exclusionary activities so typical of academia.
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So slander him not, for backbiting is blameable and poisoned is the flesh of the pious. 443 Look how he inciteth us to fight the foe; and, did not Almighty Allah love him, He had cast him aforetime into fearful torment.
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The criticism here, like much of the political backbiting, is way out of line.
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It is said that in other society there is sometimes a great scramble for the first place, for the leadership, as it is called, and that women, and men too, fight for what is called position; and in order to be first they will injure their neighbors by telling stories about them and by backbiting, which is the meanest kind of biting there is, not excepting the bite of fleas.
The Complete Project Gutenberg Writings of Charles Dudley Warner Charles Dudley Warner 1864
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It is said that in other society there is sometimes a great scramble for the first place, for the leadership, as it is called, and that women, and men too, fight for what is called position; and in order to be first they will injure their neighbors by telling stories about them and by backbiting, which is the meanest kind of biting there is, not excepting the bite of fleas.
Being a Boy Charles Dudley Warner 1864
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Let us banish from the social circle that spirit of detraction and backbiting, which is always the bane of society.
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His supporter, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, told reporters he thinks this kind of backbiting destroys the party.
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His supporter, former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, told reporters he thinks this kind of backbiting destroys the party.
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