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.
to criticize, condemn, etc., in public.
He’s been unfairly lynched in the media.
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)
John, known as Jack Lynch. 1917–99, Irish statesman; prime minister of the Republic of Ireland (1966–73; 1977–79)
See hang.
An Americanism first recorded in 1825–35; verb use of lynch in lynch law
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.
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
With the shoeshine under arrest, a Black militia gathered at a local jail to prevent a lynch mob from kidnapping and murdering him.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 3, 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
John Edgar Wideman’s 1973 “The Lynchers,” about a group of Black men who plan to lynch a white police officer, is doleful and ambitiously literary, anticipating Wideman’s distinguished writing career.
From New York Times ● Jul. 6, 2020
The verb to lynch means to execute without a trial or due process.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 23, 2019
“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
This year, eight of the clients of Merrill Lynch financial adviser April Tardiff retired.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
That 70 million barrels might be the minimum operation levels based on technical considerations, but the DOE seems to “assume optimal operations,” said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026
Listening to Xiu Xiu’s “Eraserhead” on a hot and stormy Friday afternoon is an atavistic summoning of the many gifts that David Lynch left us to remember him by.
From Salon ● Jul. 10, 2026
Hargitay would be the first woman to host since Jane Lynch in 2011.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026
Mr. Lynch was so old he had washed dishes at the Last Supper.
From "145th Street: Short Stories" by Walter Dean Myers
US President Joe Biden established a national monument to honour Emmett Till, a black teenager who was lynched in 1955 in Mississippi, and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, on Tuesday.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2023
“Leopoldstadt” went on to win best play, while best musical revival went to another searing work about antisemitism: “Parade,” starring Ben Platt as Leo Frank, a Jewish man who was lynched in 1915 in Georgia.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 12, 2023
The white woman who accused Black teenager Emmett Till of making improper advances before he was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 has died in hospice care in Louisiana, a coroner’s report shows.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 27, 2023
He called Arbery the “Emmett Till of our day,” referencing the Black 14-year-old lynched in 1955.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 15, 2021
As of 1920, about 13 out of every 100 black children died in infancy, or roughly 20,000 children each year—compared to 28 people who were lynched in a year.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
The National Memorial is the first institution of its kind dedicated to the legacy of the Black Americans who were the victims of the racial terror of lynching.
From Salon ● Apr. 18, 2025
He added that he was "neither a rapist nor a predator" and lamented that it was his word against the "trial by media and lynching" that he faced.
From BBC ● Mar. 24, 2025
The country singer labeled allegations that the song or video made references to lynching or that it is racially charged as “meritless” and “dangerous.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2023
The law makes lynching a federal hate crime.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 9, 2023
Then again, I also understood that Kathy was only doing what students of my generation had done to help end lynching.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
