What's the difference between backbite and spiteful?

Backbite


Definition:

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

Example Sentences:

  • (1) May told backbench MPs at a summer event that their choice was her or Corbyn as prime minister as she urged them to stop the “backbiting”.
  • (2) Not only would the party’s Stalinist-like discipline compare favourably with the chaos and backbiting that would infect the coalition government, but the Shinners would play it all to their advantage in other ways.” With senior Fianna Fáil personnel baulking at the prospect of a formal coalition government with Fine Gael and remaining on the opposition benches, it appears so far that they will not be gifting any “grand coalition wet dream” to Sinn Féin in the near future.
  • (3) The disarray and anonymous backbiting in the Liberal party is infuriating Abbott loyalists and some in the National party .
  • (4) Alastair Campbell, Blair's former communications director, put it: "You know with absolute certainty that today's broadly loyal minister is tomorrow's bitter and backbiting backbencher."
  • (5) Two sources close to the situation described an atmosphere of sniping and backbiting as Trump loyalists position themselves for key jobs,” the network reported.
  • (6) West paid tribute to his Watch the Throne partner Jay-Z, saying the older rapper had looked out for West and protected him in the backbiting culture of hip-hop.
  • (7) Especially intriguing is the behind-the-scenes backbiting and jockeying for position among Simpson’s “dream team” of lawyers: Robert Shapiro (John Travolta), F Lee Bailey (Nathan Lane), Johnny Cochran (Courtney B Vance) and Alan Dershowitz (Evan Handler).
  • (8) Others said they were an inevitable product of the macho news culture in which he was immersed for almost 40 years - from the newsrooms of local papers to the deserts of his African adventures and the backbiting world of BBC internal politics.
  • (9) The Vatileaks scandals, which led to the jailing of the former pope's butler for passing stolen papers to Italian journalists, exposed a nest of backbiting and financial corruption.
  • (10) The haters and the backbiters have ready-made arguments they love to throw in your face.
  • (11) Amid the financial crisis swirling the chancelleries of Europe and the perennial backbiting about an uncompetitive economy suffering at the hands of cheaper labour in the east the economic premise for the EU is often lost: that over the past 25 years, the single market has made goods cheaper, labour cheaper, and trade more secure and more competitive.
  • (12) When it became apparent that Balls had no hope of winning a contest, mired as he was in the backbiting of the New Labour years, they wanted someone else to topple David Miliband.
  • (13) What selling needs is high visibility, unblinking belief and a capacity to persuade that starts with immediate colleagues – which is why the backbiting sets up such a damaging circle of negativity.
  • (14) The attorney general misled the cabinet – which, in any case, consisted of informal cups of coffee, rubber-stamping, and backbiting.
  • (15) They include surveillance reports, inter-agency information trading, disinformation and backbiting, as well as evidence of infiltration, theft and blackmail.
  • (16) Otherwise, John Ashdown,sends in the ECB job description , one of whose requirements isthe "implementation of a people agenda" - presumably a plan for how backbiting and gossip should work, an essential quality for running English cricket.
  • (17) Straight talk is a style of communication aimed at solving problems--without blaming, defending, bickering, or backbiting.
  • (18) Johnson's second term in city hall often resembles a sort of laissez-faire zoo, over-stocked with backbiters, cronies and cranks.
  • (19) In a profession that is often noted for its backbiting, Jack had an Olympian stature.

Spiteful


Definition:

  • (a.) Filled with, or showing, spite; having a desire to vex, annoy, or injure; malignant; malicious; as, a spiteful person or act.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In spite of dense lymphocytic infiltration only 3% of the tumor infiltrating lymphocytes exhibit the activation marker CD 25.
  • (2) When labelled long-chain fatty acids or glycerol were infused into the lactating goat, there was extensive transfer of radioactivity into milk in spite of the absence of net uptake of substrate by the mammary gland.
  • (3) In spite of important differences in size, chemical composition, polymer density, and configuration, biological macromolecules indeed manifest some of the essential physical-chemical properties of gels.
  • (4) Mastitis in its complexity has managed to forestall all efforts of eradication in spite of years of research, antibiotics and practical control measures.
  • (5) In spite of antimalaria treatment, with cortisone and then with immuno-depressants, the outcome was fatal with a picture of acute reticulosis and neurological disorders.
  • (6) In spite of the presence of scar tissue following rhytidectomy, this procedure has been quite successful because of the rich blood supply in that area.
  • (7) By the GN of non-streptococcal etiology, AA's to the BLSE apparently of other specificity are obtained in some cases, in spite of the absence of antibodies to A-PS.
  • (8) In spite of the formation of the epoxide intermediate, no binding of [14C]d-limonene equivalents to mouse kidney proteins was observed.
  • (9) No cases of rheumatic fever and no acute nephritis appeared in spite of the vigorous immune response to both cellular and extracellular antigens of group A streptococci documented in 50% to 80% of patients, suggesting that strain variation may be a feature of rheumatogenicity as well as nephritogenicity of group A streptococcal pharyngitis.
  • (10) Clinical and inflammatory activity improved in both groups, but consistently more so in the auranofin group, in spite of the greater consumption of local steroids and NSAIDs in the placebo group.
  • (11) The reported case of fetal infection in spite of previous rubella vaccination of the mother does not discourage the use of rubella vaccine.
  • (12) Although operative mortality was significantly greater for women during most of this review period, mortality was similar during 1983 (2.6% for men versus 2.4% for women), in spite of a significantly higher incidence of unstable angina in the female group (54% for women versus 35% for men).
  • (13) The shapes of the curves for soleus and tibialis anterior are similar in spite of the different mechanical conditions of the two muscles.
  • (14) In spite of the limitations arising from the complex geometry of the right ventricule, echocardiography may be the most important non-invasive technique in the evaluation of the structural and functional repercussion of hypertension on the right ventricle.
  • (15) Thus, in spite of its excellent activity and unquestionable effectiveness, rifampicin should be used with caution in severe staphylococcal infections.
  • (16) My son was born healthy, strong and very handsome, in spite of his dangerous start.
  • (17) The great clinical value of the procedure is shown by the following findings:X-ray-negative lesions--including 2 cases of carcinoma--were found in 35 percent of the cases, radiologically demonstrated lesions could be defined more precisely in 18 percent, and the presence of colonic lesions could be ruled out in 11 percent in spite of equivocal X-ray findings.
  • (18) In spite of low fluoride content in their water supply, the findings revealed a generally low prevalence of caries experience (DMFT 1.26).
  • (19) In anesthetized cats, the enhancement of sympathetic activity and increase of the blood pressure in exclusion of afferents (section of vagosympathetic trunks and clamping of common carotid arteries) as well as the disappearance of the activity in enhanced afferentation, were shown to be transient and to disappear within a few minutes-scores of minutes in spite of the going on deafferentation or enhancement of afferentation.
  • (20) By modifying the spatial distribution of afferents to the network, we demonstrate that the same basic model functions properly in spite of afferents with nonuniform background firing rates.