behind someone's back

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]

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Eutychos	-	Ancient Greek, Biblical Greek
Emelia	i-MEE-lee-ə, i-MEEL-yə	English
Anneke	AHN-nə-kə	Dutch
Ibrahim	-	Arabic, Malay, Indonesian
Kisha	-	African American
JoŠKo	-	Croatian