lynch mob

American  

[linch mob] / ˈlɪntʃ ˌmɒb /

noun

1. a crowd of people without legal authority who are intent on putting someone to death for an alleged offense.

   The city was once a real frontier town of gunslingers, lynch mobs, and vigilante justice.

   African Americans were regularly attacked by white lynch mobs if they "stepped out of line."

2. a group of people who publicly accuse and attack someone in a vicious way in an effort to destroy their reputation.

   After his controversial ruling, the judge was the victim of a lynch mob on social media.

---

adjective

1. Also lynch-mob relating to or characteristic or reminiscent of a group of people trying to destroy someone’s reputation or kill someone without legal authority.

   There was a lynch mob mentality coming out in a number of the posts, so the moderator shut down the thread.

   The basic facts of the incident were lost in the lynch-mob atmosphere that prevailed on campus.

verb (used with object)

1. none lynch-mob (of a group) to publicly accuse and attack someone in a vicious way in an effort to destroy their reputation.

   Let's try to be fair and not lynch-mob the whole video gaming industry over this one bad outcome.

Etymology

Origin of lynch mob

First recorded in 1830–40

Example Sentences

He compared the riot to “a lynch mob of 150 years ago,” and lamented how many Americans have become “hate-filled.”

From Washington Post • Jan. 27, 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

I learned that my fellow Seattleites found equivalency between a lynch mob and a mere Civil War re-enactment.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 29, 2017

I have always felt it right to defend the referee against a lynch mob, especially when attacks became a softening-up tool for clubs to protect their interests.

From The Guardian • Mar. 13, 2011

No, they only prey on weak — pure lynch mob mentality — developing nations like Pakistan, battered by natural catastrophe, war and poverty.

From New York Times • Sep. 15, 2010

Related Words

• detachment