Word.ws English Dictionary

back-bite

back-bite is the alternative form of backbite.

Meaning of backbite

Verb

backbite (third-person singular simple present backbites, present participle backbiting, simple past backbit, past participle backbitten)

  1. To make spiteful slanderous or defamatory statements about someone.
    • They beguiled the time by backbiting and intriguing against each other in a foolish kind of way.1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 213
  2. (informal) To attack from behind or when out of earshot with spiteful or defamatory remarks.
  3. To speak badly of an absent individual.

See all 4 meanings of backbite

Forms of back-bite

third-person singular presentback-bites
present participleback-biting
pastback-bit
past participleback-bitten

Questions about back-bite

What is back-bite the alternative form of?
Back-bite is the alternative form of backbite.

Words near back-bite in the dictionary

  1. back-bench
  2. back-bencher
  3. back-benchers
  4. back-benches
  5. back-bit
  6. back-bite
  7. back-bites
  8. back-biting
  9. back-bitten
  10. back-block
  11. back-blocks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: back-bite (page history and authors); backbite (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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