1. \Back"bite`\, v. i. [2nd back, n., + bite]
   To wound by clandestine detraction; to censure meanly or
   spitefully (an absent person); to slander or speak evil of
   (one absent). --Spenser.
   

2. \Back"bite`\, v. i.
   To censure or revile the absent.
         They are arrant knaves, and will backbite. --Shak.
   

In Ps. 15:3, the rendering of a word which means to run about tattling, calumniating; in Prov. 25:23, secret talebearing or slandering; in Rom. 1:30 and 2 Cor. 12:20, evil-speaking, maliciously defaming the absent.