lynch
verb (used with object)
to put to death, especially by hanging, by mob action and without legal authority.
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lynch
1 American
[linch]
/ lɪntʃ /
verb (used with object)
-
lynches,
present (3rd person singular)
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lynched,
past participle, past
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lynching
present participle
-
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.
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to criticize, condemn, etc., in public.
He’s been unfairly lynched in the media.
Lynch
2
American
[linch]
/ lɪntʃ /
noun
Lynch
1
British
/ lɪntʃ /
noun
-
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)
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John, known as Jack Lynch. 1917–99, Irish statesman; prime minister of the Republic of Ireland (1966–73; 1977–79)
lynch
2
British
/ lɪntʃ /
verb
Synonym Usage
See hang.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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lynchsimple
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lynchessimple
-
have lynchedperfect
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has lynchedperfect
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am lynchingprogressive
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are lynchingprogressive
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is lynchingprogressive
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have been lynchingperfect progressive
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has been lynchingperfect progressive
Past
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lynchedsimple
-
had lynchedperfect
-
was lynchingprogressive
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were lynchingprogressive
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had been lynchingperfect progressive
Future
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.
Vocabulary lists containing lynch
Life Is So Good
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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Scrabble: Words with no Vowels
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
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
In 1962, the white lawyer in “To Kill a Mockingbird” confronts a lynch mob intent on hanging his client, an innocent Black man, later telling the jury, “In our courts, all men are created equal.”
From New York Times ● Sep. 7, 2022
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
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
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Merrill Lynch set up shop; some started calling the downtown “Wall Street West.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
Born in Missoula, Mont., in 1946, Lynch studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
On any given day, David Lynch would set out from his Hollywood Hills home with his camera and a number in mind: 10 photos in five hours, say.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
How, then, to explain the survival of Neal and Lynch, two longtime members of Congress who put down progressive challenges from first-time candidates last night?
From Slate ● Sep. 2, 2026
Merrill Lynch, which had begun by saying they had $7 billion in losses, now admitted the number was over $50 billion.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
In Zambia, the hearsay about disappearing genitals first gained traction in March when a woman was lynched, going on to spread panic across the border in Tanzania.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
“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
“When he was doing the Ida B. Wells, I’d come visit Richard and he’d have a stack of seven different books on Ida B. Wells — lynching, photographs and history,” Ott said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2023
But the title’s blunt, irrefutable statement carries Allison Russell toward harsh thoughts about racism, slavery, exploitation, lynching and sin — and then to an unexpected coda.
From New York Times ● Dec. 6, 2023
Mrs. Malloy says Negro people came here to escape lynching and inhumane treatment.
From "Betty Before X" by Ilyasah Shabazz and Renée Watson
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.
