backbite
Americanverb (used with object)
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backbites,
present (3rd person singular)
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backbit,
past, past participle
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backbitten,
past participle
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backbiting
present participle
verb (used without object)
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backbites,
present (3rd person singular)
-
backbit,
past, past participle
-
backbitten,
past participle
-
backbiting
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
backbitesimple
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backbitessimple
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have backbitperfect
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have backbittenperfect
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has backbitperfect
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has backbittenperfect
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am backbitingprogressive
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are backbitingprogressive
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is backbitingprogressive
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have been backbitingperfect progressive
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has been backbitingperfect progressive
Past
-
backbitsimple
-
had backbitperfect
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had backbittenperfect
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was backbitingprogressive
-
were backbitingprogressive
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had been backbitingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of backbite
Middle English word dating back to 1125–75; see origin at back 1, bite
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.
See Examples For:
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
They backbite, they slander me before the king my lord, saying: Abdi-hiba has fallen away from the king his lord.
From The Christian View of the Old Testament by Frederick Carl Eiselen
The duty of the Ninth Commandment is to love the truth, not to backbite and slander, to speak well of all men; the contrary is lying, backbiting, and to speak evil of another.
From Selections from the Table Talk of Martin Luther by Captain Henry Bell
Besides, the way people gossip and backbite is the very devil!
From Three Comedies by R. Farquharson (Robert Farquharson) Sharp
One who backbites; a secret calumniator or detractor.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Noah Webster
Here's an unthankful spiteful wretch! the good gentleman vouchsafed to make him his companion, because my husband put him into a few rags, and now see how the unrude rascal backbites him!
From Every Man out of His Humour by Ben Jonson
It was only such as had reason to dread the secret communication between closet and housetop that feared her tongue; if she spoke loud, she never spoke false, or backbit in the dark.
From Malcolm by George MacDonald
He was the hero of London society, which adored and backbit him alternately, and he was precisely the man whom the boy Brummell would worship.
From The Wits and Beaux of Society Volume 2 by Philip Wharton
No worse than they are backbitten, sir; for they have marvellous foul linen.
From The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
Now we can't help being backbitten or talked about, but we can help doing it to others: the way, child, is to keep to ourselves and to see no one.
From Daisy Burns (Volume 2) by Julia Kavanagh
I overheard the aide-de-camp say; "he is a backbiting sneak, and I tell you again he's backbitten nobody more than he has you!"
From The Cavalier by George Washington Cable
I have no friend at Rome; I have laboured in England, to be misrepresented, backbitten and scorned.
From Outspoken Essays by William Ralph Inge
I came here to try and do you a good turn, not to hear John Huish backbitten.
From A Double Knot by George Manville Fenn
A man masters his emotions, remains calm under pressure, refuses to engage in gossip or backbiting and accepts his imperfections while continually striving to become the best version of himself.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
That kind of provocative behavior will lead to years, even a lifetime, of one-upmanship, backbiting and behind-the-scenes maneuvers.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2025
Mark and Dahlia discuss this news, and also how lower court judges are calling out SCOTUS’ unreasoned, incoherent opinions and how some of the Justices are trying to control, alt, delete all the backbiting.
From Slate ● Sep. 6, 2025
And yet within weeks there was backbiting and infighting.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2024
His nominal goal was to end backbiting about the bomb program from Roosevelt’s director of war mobilization, James F. Byrnes, a former senator and Supreme Court justice.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
