Crossword clues for backbite
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Backbite \Back"bite`\, v. t. [2d back, n. + bite.]
To wound by clandestine detraction; to censure meanly or
spitefully (an absent person); to slander or speak evil of
(one absent).
--Spenser.
Backbite \Back"bite`\, v. i. To censure or revile the absent.
They are arrant knaves, and will backbite.
--Shak.
Wiktionary
n. One who engages in backbiting; a backbiter. vb. 1 To make spiteful slanderous or defamatory statements about someone. 2 (context informal English) To attack from behind or when out of earshot with spiteful or defamatory remarks. 3 To speak badly of an absent individual.
WordNet
v. say mean things [syn: bitch]
[also: backbitten, backbit]
Usage examples of "backbite".
You see, Arthurungrateful, backbiting young poseur that he is, I discovered too latefeared me and what I might do were I to reach Edinburgh and the ear of the cardinal there.
It is particularly important to refrain from making unfavourable remarks or statements concerning the friends and the loved ones of God, inasmuch as any expression of grievance, of complaint or backbiting is incompatible with the requirements of unity and harmony and would dampen the spirit of love, fellowship and nobility.
Sometimes she wondered why she still gave a damn about being accepted in her family, especially when they behaved like sniping, backbiting lunatics.
Gemma knew Michael: He was in no mood for bickering, backbiting, or inter-Dante politics.
Why must the public pay through the nose for the endless bickering and backbiting between these two monster organizations Planetary Development and the Space Force?
The army of the Queen Regent was indeed in an almost wrecked condition, and among the field officers jealousy and backbiting, which had smouldered through the war-time, broke out openly.
A few saintly personalities stand out amidst a roiling sea of jealousies, ambition, backbiting, suppression of dissent, and absurd conceits.
Catholics, are popular superstitions, envy, calumnies, backbiting, insinuations, and the like, which, being neither punished nor refuted, stir up suspicion of witchcraft.
It is particularly important to refrain from making unfavourable remarks or statements concerning the friends and the loved ones of God, inasmuch as any expression of grievance, of complaint or backbiting is incompatible with the requirements of unity and harmony and would dampen the spirit of love, fellowship and nobility.
Sometimes she wondered why she still gave a damn about being accepted in her family, especially when they behaved like sniping, backbiting lunatics.
The army of the Queen Regent was indeed in an almost wrecked condition, and among the field officers jealousy and backbiting, which had smouldered through the war-time, broke out openly.
Catholics, are popular superstitions, envy, calumnies, backbiting, insinuations, and the like, which, being neither punished nor refuted, stir up suspicion of witchcraft.
I can easily conceive of a certain amount of backbiting between the Kashubian logging crew and the helmsman, who was a native of Stettin, perhaps even the beginning of a mutiny: meeting in the galley, lots drawn, passwords given out, cutlasses sharpened.
The SSC was both sleazy and noble: at one level a "quark barrel" commercialized morass of contractors scrambling at the federal trough, while Congressmen eye-gouged one another in the cloakroom, scientists angled for the main chance and a steady paycheck, and supposedly dignified scholars ground their teeth in public and backbit like a bunch of jealous prima donnas.
Later, closeted with his lieutenants and Sir Marc, di Bolgia said, "Look, I've had a crawful of these treacherous, demented, backbiting FitzGerald ilk.