Forms: see the vb. [f. BACKBITE v. + -ER1.] One who backbites; a slanderer or secret calumniator.
a. 1230. Ancr. R., 86. Bacbitares þe biteð oðre men bihinden.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pers. T., ¶ 422. The bacbiter wol torne al thilke goodnes up-so-doun.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 21/2. Bakkebytere, Detractor.
1509. Barclay, Ship of Fooles (1570), ¶ ¶ iv. Backbiters which good liuers diffame.
1627. Sp. without Doors, in Rushw., Hist. Coll. (1659), I. 492. Diogenes being asked what beast bit sorest, answered, Of wilde beasts, the Back-biter; of tame, the Flatterer.
1859. Tennyson, Vivien, 673. Face-flatterers and backbiters are the same.
b. (word-play): A biter, or striker, on the back.
1608. Tourneur, Rev. Trag., II. ii. 58. Sword thou wast neuer a back-biter yet.
