Definition of "backbite"

backbite

verb
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.
  Quotations
  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, […], 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.
noun
plural backbites
1. One who engages in backbiting; a backbiter.