Backbite

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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.
     [1913 Webster]



From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Backbite \Back"bite`\, v. i.
     To censure or revile the absent.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           They are arrant knaves, and will backbite. --Shak.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  backbite
       v : say mean things [syn: {bitch}]
       [also: {backbitten}, {backbit}]

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Backbite
     In Ps. 15:3, the rendering of a word which means to run about
     tattling, calumniating; in Prov. 25:23, secret talebearing or
     slandering; in Rom. 1:30 and 2 Cor. 12:20, evil-speaking,
     maliciously defaming the absent.
     

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  BACKBITE, v.t.  To speak of a man as you find him when he can't find
  you.