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]
| the offspring of a zebra and a donkey. |
| a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes. |
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