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

See Examples For:

lynch law

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

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

The safeguards of trial by jury, regular judicial procedure, and habeas corpus were established, in order that the methods of civilized life might take the place of the rough-and-ready justice of lynch law.

From History of the United States by Beard, Charles A. (Charles Austin)

We endured slavery 243 years and stayed here, and we shall still be here when lynch law shall have spent its force, and with us shall be our white brother.

From Twentieth Century Negro Literature Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating to the American Negro by Culp, Daniel Wallace

What effort was made in 1768 to put a stop to lynch law?

From Civil Government in the United States Considered with Some Reference to Its Origins by Fiske, John