backbiting means the action of slandering a person without that person's knowledge. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 84 out of 100.
Why “backbiting” is a great word
BACKBITING — [Noun] The act of slandering or speaking maliciously about someone who is absent. From Middle English bakbitynge, from backbite (to slander) + -ing (suffix forming nouns of action). The verb 'backbite' is from Middle English bakbiten, from bak ("back") + biten ("to bite"), hence the figurative sense of 'biting someone behind their back'. Unlike gossip, which circulates as idle currency, or criticism, which can be a direct and constructive engagement, backbiting is a secret malice, a poison brewed for an empty chair. It is the murmured confidence that silences upon approach, the feigned sigh of concern that prefaces a character assassination, the carefully planted doubt meant to rot trust from within—a coward's fire that burns only where trust cannot witness its own betrayal.
noun
- The action of slandering a person without that person's knowledge.“[…]ending his epistle by saying, "that his uncle having doubtless lent his ear to some old woman's tales and backbiting, he did not choose to place his property in the hands of a spendthrift,[…]”
adj
- Slanderous or speaking badly, especially of a person without that person's knowledge.“Backbiting talk that flattering blabs know wily how to blenge.”