lynch

¹ American  

[linch] / lɪntʃ /

verb (used with object)

1. to put to death, especially by hanging, by mob action and without legal authority.

   In the 19th and 20th centuries, thousands of southern African Americans were lynched by white mobs.

2. to criticize, condemn, etc., in public.

   He’s been unfairly lynched in the media.

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Lynch ² American  

[linch] / lɪntʃ /

noun

1. John Jack, 1917–1999, Irish political leader: prime minister 1966–73, 1977–79.

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Lynch ¹ British  

/ lɪntʃ /

noun

1. David. born 1946, US film director; his work includes the films Eraserhead (1977), Blue Velvet (1986), Wild at Heart (1990), Mulholland Drive (2001), and Inland Empire (2006), and the television series Twin Peaks (1990)

2. John, known as Jack Lynch. 1917–99, Irish statesman; prime minister of the Republic of Ireland (1966–73; 1977–79)

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lynch ² British  

/ lɪntʃ /

verb

1. (tr) (of a mob) to punish (a person) for some supposed offence by hanging without a trial

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Related Words

See hang.

Other Word Forms

• antilynching adjective
• lyncher noun
• lynching noun

Etymology

Origin of lynch

An Americanism first recorded in 1825–35; verb use of lynch in lynch law

Explanation

To lynch is to murder, or unlawfully kill. When an angry mob kills someone they believe is guilty of a crime, they lynch that person. Through history, when a group of people murders someone, especially by hanging him by the neck, they are usually said to lynch him. This was unfortunately not uncommon during the Civil Rights struggle of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the American South: if a white community believed an African American had done something wrong, they would sometimes lynch him. Lynch is named after Justice Charles Lynch, who condoned mob justice during the American Revolution.

Example Sentences

He compared the riot to “a lynch mob of 150 years ago,” and lamented how many Americans have become “hate-filled.”

From Washington Post • Jan. 27, 2023

Angry readers wrote to The Times in response to my favorable review of the series, insisting I was part of a lynch mob: “Shame on you!”

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 14, 2021

Fair and open elections are the lynch pin of our democracy.

From Washington Times • Feb. 27, 2019

The minister, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, said last week: “It would be unjust to lynch someone on social media because of how we feel about the issue.”

From New York Times • Jul. 30, 2018

“Oh, that. Well, to hear the Post tell it, we lynch ’em for breakfast; the Journal doesn’t care; and the Times is so wrapped up in its duty to posterity it bores you to death.

From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee