Backbite

Webster's Dictionary

(1): (v. i.) To censure or revile the absent.

(2): (v. i.) To wound by clandestine detraction; to censure meanly or spitefully (an absent person); to slander or speak evil of (one absent).

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Psalm 15:3 Proverbs 25:23 Romans 1:30  2 Corinthians 12:20

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

bak´bı̄t רגל , rāghal  ; δολόω , dolóō ̌ : To slander the absent, like a dog biting behind the back, where one cannot see; to go about as a talebearer. "He that backbiteth [Revised Version, slandereth not with his tongue" ( Psalm 15:3 ).

Backbiters bak´bı̄t -ẽrz (Greek κατάλαλοι , katálaloi ̌ : Men who speak against. Vulgate, "detractors" ( Romans 1:30 ).

Backbiting bak´bı̄t -ing : סתר , ṣether ̌ : Adj. "a backbiting tongue"; literally, "a tongue of secrecy" ( Proverbs 25:23 ). καταλαλία , katalalı́a ̌ : substantive "a speaking against" ( 2 Corinthians 12:20; Wisdom  2 Corinthians 1:11 ); "evil speaking" ( 1 Peter 2:1 ). γλώσσα τρίτη , glō̇ssa trı́tē ̌ : "a backbiting tongue" (the King James Version of Ecclesiasticus 28:14, 15); more literally translated in the Revised Version (British and American) "a third person's tongue."

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(in  Psalms 15:3, רָגִל, Ragal', to Run About tattling; in  Proverbs 25:23, סֵתֶר, Se'Ther, Secrecy in tale-bearing; in  Romans 1:30, κατάλαλος, an Evil Speaker; in  2 Corinthians 12:20, καταλαλιά, evil-speaking), maliciously to defame an absent person. (See Slander).