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.

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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

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

Lives Lived: Harold Brown was one of the last surviving Black pilots of the Tuskegee Airmen and faced a lynch mob of villagers in Austria after his plane was downed in 1945.

From New York Times • Feb. 1, 2023

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 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

Related Words

• detachment