backbite

See also: back-bite

English

Alternative forms

back-bite

Etymology

From Middle English bakbiten, bacbiten, equivalent to back- +‎ bite. Cognate with Icelandic bakbíta (“to backbite, vilify”).

Verb

backbite (third-person singular simple present backbites, present participle backbiting, simple past backbit, past participle backbitten)

To make spiteful slanderous or defamatory statements about someone.
- 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 213:
  They beguiled the time by backbiting and intriguing against each other in a foolish kind of way.
(informal) To attack from behind or when out of earshot with spiteful or defamatory remarks.
To speak badly of an absent individual.

Synonyms

See also Thesaurus:defame

Derived terms

Translations

to make defamatory statements about another

Arabic: اِغْتَابَ (iḡtāba), أَبَرَ (ar) (ʔabara)
Azerbaijani: pisləmək, yamanlamaq
Bulgarian: злосло́вя (bg) impf (zloslóvja)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 戳脊梁骨 (zh) (chuō jǐlianggǔ), 戳脊梁 (zh) (chuō jǐliang), 誹謗／诽谤 (zh) (fěibàng)
Cornish: bacbîtya
Czech: pomlouvat (cs) impf, pomluvit (cs) pf
French: calomnier (fr), salir (fr), diffamer (fr)
German: verleumden (de), afterreden (de), anschwärzen (de)
Icelandic: baknaga, rægja, rógbera
Italian: dire peste e corna, parlare male (it), denigrare (it), sparlare (it), calunniare (it), parlare alle spalle
Japanese: 後指を指す (ja) (ushiroyubi wo sasu)
Maori: muhari, kohimu, kōhimuhimu, ngautuarā, kōhumuhumu
Polish: obmawiać (pl) impf, obgadywać (pl) impf
Portuguese: fazer a caveira (pt)
Russian: злосло́вить (ru) impf (zloslóvitʹ), ха́ять (ru) impf (xájatʹ), хули́ть (ru) impf (xulítʹ), поро́чить (ru) impf (poróčitʹ), полива́ть гря́зью impf (polivátʹ grjázʹju, literally “pour dirt on”)
Spanish: calumniar (es)

Noun

backbite (plural backbites)

One who engages in backbiting; a backbiter.

Anagrams

bite back