behind someone's back

Idioms and Phrases

Out of one's presence or without someone's knowledge, as in Joan has a nasty way of maligning her friends behind their backs . Sir Thomas Malory used this metaphoric term in Le Morte d'Arthur (c. 1470): “To say of me wrong or shame behind my back.” [Early 1300s]

Example Sentences

Other songs showcase a similar emotional intelligence: “Is There Someone Else?” draws a moral line at sneaking behind someone’s back; “Best Friends” levels with a woman regarding the precise limits of what the narrator can promise.

From Los Angeles Times

The first are the angels: those whose innermost thoughts are already safely expressible, who never need to talk behind someone’s back because what they want to say is acceptable to deliver to their face, and who cannot have a throwaway comment come back to bite them because every comment is perfectly thought-out and expressed first time round.

From The Guardian

I just find it cowardly to talk behind someone's back.

From Los Angeles Times

Okay, maybe sometimes my jokes are a little mean, but I only make those jokes behind someone’s back.

From Literature

There is a kind of farcical element to this as well, the sort of things that happen whenever a language is imperfectly understood — and this is a bilingual series, certainly — with a new twist on what it means to speak behind someone's back.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• clandestinely
• covertly
• furtively
• personally
• privately
• quietly
• stealthily
• surreptitiously