as in to betray
to be unfaithful or disloyal to
knew what it felt like to be backstabbed by a so-called friend
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Recent Examples of backstab
Friends can lie, colleagues can backstab, anyone can die in any number of brutal ways.
—
Angie Han, HollywoodReporter, 28 Aug. 2025
Many of the women are status-obsessed and needy, quick to backstab other women to reach the top.
—Literary Hub
june 21, Literary Hub, 21 June 2023
Angie Han, HollywoodReporter, 28 Aug. 2025
Many of the women are status-obsessed and needy, quick to backstab other women to reach the top.
—Literary Hub
june 21, Literary Hub, 21 June 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for backstab
betray
Verb
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The group, originally led by Seth Rollins, brutally betrayed him, which was used to write Rollins off television after an injury forced him to vacate the World Heavyweight Championship.—
Andrew Ravens,
MSNBC Newsweek,
4 Nov. 2025
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Greenblatt’s myth of a Romantic Marlowe almost singlehandedly pushing England into the Renaissance betrays the principles of New Historicism by shortchanging the roles of so many other key players.—
Isaac Butler,
The Atlantic,
3 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Backstab.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/backstab. Accessed 9 Nov. 2025.
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