as in slander
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Recent Examples of backbiting
Sadly, Sister Wives has really become an experience of criticism and backbiting.
—
Liza Esquibias, PEOPLE, 28 Sep. 2025
The industry functions on a delicate infrastructure of intimidation, backbiting, and the occasional contract amid endless favors, yanking Aasmaan through its machinations like a rag doll in the wind.
—Proma Khosla, IndieWire, 19 Sep. 2025
The Girlfriend does not pretend all of this plotting and backbiting isn’t soapy nonsense.
—Angie Han, HollywoodReporter, 9 Sep. 2025
Liza Esquibias, PEOPLE, 28 Sep. 2025
The industry functions on a delicate infrastructure of intimidation, backbiting, and the occasional contract amid endless favors, yanking Aasmaan through its machinations like a rag doll in the wind.
—Proma Khosla, IndieWire, 19 Sep. 2025
The Girlfriend does not pretend all of this plotting and backbiting isn’t soapy nonsense.
—Angie Han, HollywoodReporter, 9 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for backbiting
Noun
-
For reasons that are quite possibly too unbearable to contemplate, a large group of American voters was not repulsed by such slander—they were actually aroused by it—and our politics have not been the same.—
Jeffrey Goldberg,
The Atlantic,
6 Jan. 2026
-
Jaxson Dart’s father will not hear any more slander about his son.—
Scott Thompson,
FOXNews.com,
29 Dec. 2025
Noun
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The Sermon on the ‘Mount episode also represented, amid the resulting furor on the right, a canny announcement that the collected calumnies of creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are finally available on the Paramount Plus streaming service, after years licensed on Warner Bros.—
David Bloom,
Forbes.com,
28 July 2025
-
That’s when his ugly-American calumny turned to blather.—
Armond White,
National Review,
28 May 2025
Noun
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Anti-SLAPP laws are generally used to prevent people from using expensive defamation suits to target or punish others for their speech.—
Seth Klamann,
Denver Post,
27 Jan. 2026
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The actress, 39, is featured in Silenced, which centers around the weaponization of defamation laws against abuse survivors.—
Raven Brunner,
PEOPLE,
25 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Baldoni denied the claims and filed a $400 million defamation suit against Lively as well as a $250 million libel lawsuit against The Times, both of which have since been tossed.—
Jami Ganz,
New York Daily News,
21 Jan. 2026
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The filing was later tossed, as was Baldoni’s $250 million libel lawsuit against The New York Times for its coverage of Lively’s allegations.—
Jami Ganz,
Mercury News,
16 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Add the pathetic reality that Illinois is the very definition of unfriendliness for business development and job creation, and the only thing Pritzker and his accomplices can campaign on is the vilification of Trump, facts be damned.—
Paul Miller,
Chicago Tribune,
8 Jan. 2026
-
We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants.—
Ross O'Keefe,
The Washington Examiner,
15 Nov. 2025
Noun
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Aumann’s complaint alleges fraud, tortious interference and business disparagement and other alleged misdeeds.—
Paul Flahive,
Austin American Statesman,
15 Jan. 2026
-
The disparagement made Knausgaard drop writing for a good ten years.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
14 Jan. 2026
Noun
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But in the end, their stories were deeper than the aspersions cast upon them.—
Hunter Ingram,
Variety,
8 Nov. 2025
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And in mid-century America, there were so many aspersions to be cast!—
David Merritt Johns,
The Atlantic,
2 Nov. 2025
Noun
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The human costs of this are the increasing rates of illnesses and the financial costs of health care, lost productivity, and the compounding problems of further environmental denigration.—
Suwanna Gauntlett Upjohn,
Forbes.com,
29 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Backbiting.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/backbiting. Accessed 30 Jan. 2026.
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