lynch law

American  

noun

1. the administration of summary punishment, especially death, upon a suspected, accused, or convicted person by a mob acting without legal process or authority.

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lynch law British  

noun

1. the practice of condemning and punishing a person by mob action without a proper trial

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lynch law Cultural  

1. 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.

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Etymology

Origin of lynch law

1805–15, after the self-instituted tribunals presided over by William Lynch (1742–1820) of Pittsylvania, Va., c1776

Example Sentences

The U.N.'s Trygve Lie snapped back: "I am taking orderly and legal measures . . . without recourse to lynch law and smear."

From Time Magazine Archive

Once the struggle against lynch law was won, the N.A.A.C.P. could give top priority to another drive�against segregated education.

From Time Magazine Archive

Such bodies of state police, efficiently used, could not only prevent the lawlessness which frequently accompanies strikes, but it could gradually stamp out lynch law.

From The Promise of American Life by Croly, Herbert David

Upon any theory, the prohibition of sorcery by the Pentateuch was no more answerable for these iniquities than its other prohibitions for the lynch law of the backwoods.

From The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Exodus by Chadwick, G. A.

As has been recently shown the term lynch law originated during the revolution and was taken from the name of the brother of the man who founded Lynchburgh in Virginia.

From The American Revolution and the Boer War, An Open Letter to Mr. Charles Francis Adams on His Pamphlet "The Confederacy and the Transvaal" by Fisher, Sydney George