backbite

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Characters backbite, bellyache, reluctantly pitch in and commit mundane acts of heroism in a largely believable manner, and there’s blessedly little inspirational speechmaking.

From New York Times • Sep. 11, 2022

Diana could spin one delicious backbite like that into a column.

From Time Magazine Archive

To backbite is to speak something secretly to one's injury; to calumniate is to invent as well as utter the injurious charge.

From English Synonyms and Antonyms With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions by Fernald, James Champlin

Even in this last moment, however, of public recognition, he was not allowed to receive it without a snarl from one of the crowd of the many slanderers who found it safer to backbite him.

From The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. - Volume 07 Historical and Political Tracts-Irish by Scott, Temple

But not to quarrel; not to haggle, and backbite and scold!

From Rimrock Jones by Coolidge, Dane