backbiting

See also: back-biting

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English bakbitynge, bacbiting, bacbitung, equivalent to backbite +‎ -ing.

Noun

backbiting (countable and uncountable, plural backbitings)

  1. The action of slandering a person without that person's knowledge.
    • 1303, Robert Manning of Brune, Handlyng synne:
      No custummable bakbytyng God....
    • 1838, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Duty and Inclination, volume III, London: Henry Colburn, page 49:
      ...ending his epistle by saying, "that his uncle having doubtless lent his ear to some old woman's tales and backbiting, he did not choose to place his property in the hands of a spendthrift,...
    • 1862, Anthony Trollope, Orley Farm:
      Not given to backbiting.
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English bakbytynge, equivalent to backbite +‎ -ing.

Adjective

backbiting (comparative more backbiting, superlative most backbiting)

  1. Slanderous or speaking badly, especially of a person without that person's knowledge.
    • 1580, Thomas Tusser, A hundreth good pointes of husbandrie:
      Backbiting talk that flattering blabs know wily how to blenge.
    • 1873, Rhoda Broughton, Nancy:
      Am I to have a backbiting wife?

Verb

backbiting

  1. present participle of backbite
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