lynch

¹

[linch]

verb (used with object)

1. 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.

2. to criticize, condemn, etc., in public.

   He’s been unfairly lynched in the media.

Lynch

²

[linch]

noun

1. John Jack, 1917–1999, Irish political leader: prime minister 1966–73, 1977–79.

Lynch

¹

/ lɪntʃ /

noun

1. 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)

2. John, known as Jack Lynch. 1917–99, Irish statesman; prime minister of the Republic of Ireland (1966–73; 1977–79)

lynch

²

/ lɪntʃ /

verb

1. (tr) (of a mob) to punish (a person) for some supposed offence by hanging without a trial

Other Word Forms

• lyncher noun
• antilynching adjective
• lynching noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of lynch¹

An Americanism first recorded in 1825–35; verb use of lynch in lynch law

Word History and Origins

Origin of lynch¹

probably after Charles Lynch (1736–96), Virginia justice of the peace, who presided over extralegal trials of Tories during the American War of Independence

Synonym Study

See hang.

Example Sentences

Negotiations to surrender the fort ended with its officers brutally lynched.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The worst of them — think Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., or White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt — smile broadly as they lynch the truth and denigrate the working press on the daily.

Read more on Salon

To enforce psychologically the old Jim Crow arrangements, there was an acceleration in the lynching of black Americans after the war.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

His captors, who need him alive as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the Israeli government, fear that local civilians would lynch an Israeli if they saw one.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

"My eyes were blindfolded, but I could hear men and children and they started to lynch me with their bare hands, and the kids' shoes start to hit me when I was on the ground."

Read more on BBC