lynch law
the administration of summary punishment, especially death, upon a suspected, accused, or convicted person by a mob acting without legal process or authority.
Origin of lynch law
1Words Nearby lynch law
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use lynch law in a sentence
It was the eighth day after the fearful application of lynch law we have just described, a little before sunset.
The Trapper's Daughter | Gustave AimardA great deal has been said and written lately about feuds and lynch-law in the districts around the lower Mississippi.
Lippincott's Magazine, August, 1885 | VariousFor such offences there is no law to reach a slave but lynch law.
Well have lynch-law here in just about ten minutes, if you aint spry.
A Singular Life | Elizabeth Stuart PhelpsTo suppress these desperadoes, in the absence of strong legal institutions, resort was continually made to lynch law.
British Dictionary definitions for lynch law
the practice of condemning and punishing a person by mob action without a proper trial
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for lynch law
The punishment of supposed criminals, especially by hanging, by agreement of a crowd and without a genuine criminal trial. Lynch law was used in the early settlement of the West as a way of maintaining minimal law and order before a sheriff and courts could be set up. It has also been used to deprive unpopular suspects of their rights and to satisfy a mob's thirst for vengeance. Lynch law was often used by whites in the South to terrorize and subjugate blacks.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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