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

Amund the blind slays Lyting; Valgard the guileful comes back to Iceland; his evil counsel to Mord; Mord begins to backbite and slander Hauskuld and Njal's sons to one another.

From The story of Burnt Njal From the Icelandic of the Njals Saga by Dasent, George Webbe

No; I’m not censorious, and I wouldn’t backbite an angel; but the way in which that young woman walks the sands at all hours - there! there!

From Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures by Jerrold, Douglas William