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
Atwell	['ætwəl]
Dwight	[dwait]
MatjaŽ	-	Slovene
Tanja	TAHN-yah (German, Finnish)	German, Finnish, Serbian, Croatian, Slovene, Macedonian, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian
Sara	SAH-rah (Spanish, Finnish, Dutch, Polish), ZAH-rah (German), SER-ə (English), SAR-ə (English), SAH:-rah (Arabic)	Greek, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Finnish, German
&Aelig;Lfheah	-	Anglo-Saxon