backbiting

Definition of backbitingnext

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for backbiting
Noun
  • Beijing has strongly denied those claims, calling them a fabrication and malicious slander.
    ABC News, ABC News, 4 Mar. 2026
  • Ohiku's complaint accused the defendants, including Kohlheim, City Clerk Jim Owczarski and Common Council President José Pérez, of libel, slander and negligent supervision.
    Vanessa Swales, jsonline.com, 24 Feb. 2026
Noun
  • Shapiro released a special 41-minute episode of his podcast detailing Fuentes’s career of calumnies against Black people, Indian Americans, Jews, and women—and called out Carlson’s refusal to confront the young white supremacist about any of it.
    Yair Rosenberg, The Atlantic, 4 Feb. 2026
  • 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
Noun
  • The president, or his companies, has also sued Capital One over debanking claims; media outlets over alleged defamation; and even the IRS over the leak of his tax information.
    Hugh Son, CNBC, 2 Mar. 2026
  • But the jury found Greenpeace USA liable on all counts, including defamation, conspiracy, trespass, nuisance and tortious interference.
    CBS News, CBS News, 27 Feb. 2026
Noun
  • The company accused Moore of libel.
    Drake Bentley, jsonline.com, 5 Mar. 2026
  • Sugar libel was snipped from both bills.
    Pat Beall, Sun Sentinel, 27 Feb. 2026
Noun
  • Analysts say Kim's vilification of South Korea reflects his view that Seoul, which helped set up his first meetings with Trump, is no longer a useful intermediary with Washington but an obstacle to his effort to establish a more assertive regional footing.
    Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 27 Feb. 2026
  • The man is due to appear before Brisbane Magistrates Court Saturday, to face a raft of charges including wilful damage, serious vilification or hate crime, dangerous driving and possession of a dangerous drug.
    Chris Lau, CNN Money, 21 Feb. 2026
Noun
  • 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
  • Not Calvin Klein casting gay aspersions!
    Emma Specter, Vogue, 19 Feb. 2026
  • But in the end, their stories were deeper than the aspersions cast upon them.
    Hunter Ingram, Variety, 8 Nov. 2025
Noun
  • Trump is, of course, a man whose rise to power has been fueled by his denigration of people for being animal-like.
    Daniel Engber, The Atlantic, 22 Feb. 2026
  • 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

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Cite this Entry

“Backbiting.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/backbiting. Accessed 9 Mar. 2026.

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