verb
- past tense of lynch; to kill someone illegally by hanging, especially as carried out by a mob
Usage: refers to extrajudicial killings, often racially motivated in historical context
Examples
- The innocent man was lynched by an angry mob.
- Many African Americans were lynched during the Jim Crow era.
- The community was horrified when they learned someone had been lynched.
- Historical records show that thousands were lynched in the American South.
- The sheriff tried to prevent the prisoner from being lynched.
- Anti-lynching laws were eventually passed to stop these crimes.