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
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Beijing has strongly denied those claims, calling them a fabrication and malicious slander.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
4 Mar. 2026
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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
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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
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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
Noun
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Claiming defamation and invasion of privacy, seven deputies from the raid sued.—
Vanity Fair,
Vanity Fair,
21 Mar. 2026
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The president and his allies continue to allege the machines deleted or switched votes in 2020, despite no supporting evidence and big money paid to Dominion in defamation settlements.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
19 Mar. 2026
Noun
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And there was a huge libel action against him that was taken out by a very brave writer called Deborah Lipstadt, who won against him.—
David Frum,
The Atlantic,
25 Mar. 2026
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In September 2024, Newsmax paid $40 million to settle another libel lawsuit with Smartmatic, another voting machine company, over claims that Smartmatic helped rig the 2020 election.—
Bill Goodykoontz,
AZCentral.com,
23 Mar. 2026
Noun
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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
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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
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And though Chalamet did not make such insults himself, his comments fit into this broader context of disparagement and dismissal.—
Chloe Angyal,
Time,
9 Mar. 2026
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As February ended, some of the things coming out of the coaches’ mouths felt more like despair than disparagement.—
Joe Rexrode,
New York Times,
4 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Not Calvin Klein casting gay aspersions!—
Emma Specter,
Vogue,
19 Feb. 2026
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But in the end, their stories were deeper than the aspersions cast upon them.—
Hunter Ingram,
Variety,
8 Nov. 2025
Noun
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From the start, the denigration of the Iranian monarchy was at the center of the Islamic Republic’s official ideology.—
Azadeh Moaveni,
New Yorker,
22 Mar. 2026
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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
Cite this Entry
“Backbiting.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/backbiting. Accessed 29 Mar. 2026.
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