Lynch
verb
To kill, especially by hanging, for an alleged offense with or without a legal trial.
In the old West, they often lynched suspected horse thieves without a proper trial.
Often appears as...
- lynch a thief
- lynch mob
Usage tips
Disapproving
verb
To kill, especially by hanging, for an alleged offense with or without a legal trial.
In the old West, they often lynched suspected horse thieves without a proper trial.
Often appears as...
- lynch a thief
- lynch mob
Usage tips
Disapproving
Definition 1 of 1
Pro Tip 1/3Historical Usage
Originally referred to execution without trial, often in a racially charged context in the United States.
The history books recount numerous incidents where people were lynched during racial conflicts.
Pro Tip 2/3Negative Connotation
Using 'lynch' carries a strongly negative and violent connotation, often linked to injustice.
The artist’s song condemned the town's decision to lynch the innocent man.
Pro Tip 3/3Careful Usage
Be cautious when using 'lynch' to avoid offending, due to its association with historical racial violence.
The speaker warned against using terms like 'lynch' in a casual or joking manner.
Pro Tip 1/3Historical Usage
Originally referred to execution without trial, often in a racially charged context in the United States.
The history books recount numerous incidents where people were lynched during racial conflicts.
Pro Tip 2/3Negative Connotation
Using 'lynch' carries a strongly negative and violent connotation, often linked to injustice.
The artist’s song condemned the town's decision to lynch the innocent man.
Pro Tip 3/3Careful Usage
Be cautious when using 'lynch' to avoid offending, due to its association with historical racial violence.
The speaker warned against using terms like 'lynch' in a casual or joking manner.
Pro Tip 1/3Historical Usage
Originally referred to execution without trial, often in a racially charged context in the United States.
The history books recount numerous incidents where people were lynched during racial conflicts.
Pro Tip 2/3Negative Connotation
Using 'lynch' carries a strongly negative and violent connotation, often linked to injustice.
The artist’s song condemned the town's decision to lynch the innocent man.
Pro Tip 3/3Careful Usage
Be cautious when using 'lynch' to avoid offending, due to its association with historical racial violence.
The speaker warned against using terms like 'lynch' in a casual or joking manner.
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Video examples
We need to talk about an...
went on to World War two we don't really know very much about it but for African Americans in this country that was an era defined by terror in many communities people had to worry about being lynched they had to worry about being bombed it was the threat of terror that shaped their lives and these older people come up to me now and they say mr. Stevenson you give
Video examples
John Lewis and Bryan...
in this country. We haven't really wanted to acknowledge the legacy of slavery and the history of lynching and segregation. People want to skip over the apology part, and you still see these Confederate flags and these symbols of resistance. It seems to me part of what is so urgent right now is that we get people to have the courage to say,
Video examples
Why Is It So Hard to...
We don't talk about lynching. We don't talk about segregation. And because of that, we don't have a healthy relationship with one another on the topic of race. Why are memorials, statues, schools, highways-- why is this symbolism so important? There are some people, I think, who think, it doesn't matter.
Video examples
Coya Paz Brownrigg: The...
a different way of recording history. A ghost story about someone being killed and coming back to haunt the town was an important arrow, a sign to look more deeply into the history of a place. Very often, if local legend featured a story about a ghost who had been hung, murdered or lynched,
Video examples
A Different Understanding...
It's tricky to love a country that doesn't always love you back. I think of the Black men who set off to fight for freedom in the world wars and then came home to be denied those very freedoms. Some of them lynched while wearing their military uniforms.
Video examples
How one journalist...
She analyzed specific cases through newspaper reports and police records, and interviewed people who had lost friends and family to lynch mobs. She risked her life to get this information. As a Black person investigating racially motivated murders,
Video examples
How we're honoring...
Spoiler alert -- she did not. So then I wondered who else we missed. And it sent me on this deep dive through the archives. There were some surprises. The pioneering journalist Ida B. Wells, who started the campaign against lynching.
Video examples
Black Women and the...
regarding um exposing the the actual horrors and reality of lynching but i think just basically basically based on her own life experiences she realized that laws had to be changed and policies had
Video examples
The urgent need for...
decades of terrorism and violence and the lynching that we are trying to memorialize terrorize people of color in this community we've never talked about thousands of people pulled into the
Video examples
A vision for the future...
there wasn't a single incident of lynching or spitting or insulting of the Tulpa our society is a consensus on making peace our values need to be reframed from war to peace and the
Video examples
We need to talk about an...
went on to World War two we don't really know very much about it but for African Americans in this country that was an era defined by terror in many communities people had to worry about being lynched they had to worry about being bombed it was the threat of terror that shaped their lives and these older people come up to me now and they say mr. Stevenson you give
Video examples
John Lewis and Bryan...
in this country. We haven't really wanted to acknowledge the legacy of slavery and the history of lynching and segregation. People want to skip over the apology part, and you still see these Confederate flags and these symbols of resistance. It seems to me part of what is so urgent right now is that we get people to have the courage to say,
Video examples
Why Is It So Hard to...
We don't talk about lynching. We don't talk about segregation. And because of that, we don't have a healthy relationship with one another on the topic of race. Why are memorials, statues, schools, highways-- why is this symbolism so important? There are some people, I think, who think, it doesn't matter.
Video examples
Coya Paz Brownrigg: The...
a different way of recording history. A ghost story about someone being killed and coming back to haunt the town was an important arrow, a sign to look more deeply into the history of a place. Very often, if local legend featured a story about a ghost who had been hung, murdered or lynched,
Video examples
A Different Understanding...
It's tricky to love a country that doesn't always love you back. I think of the Black men who set off to fight for freedom in the world wars and then came home to be denied those very freedoms. Some of them lynched while wearing their military uniforms.
Video examples
How one journalist...
She analyzed specific cases through newspaper reports and police records, and interviewed people who had lost friends and family to lynch mobs. She risked her life to get this information. As a Black person investigating racially motivated murders,
Video examples
How we're honoring...
Spoiler alert -- she did not. So then I wondered who else we missed. And it sent me on this deep dive through the archives. There were some surprises. The pioneering journalist Ida B. Wells, who started the campaign against lynching.
Video examples
Black Women and the...
regarding um exposing the the actual horrors and reality of lynching but i think just basically basically based on her own life experiences she realized that laws had to be changed and policies had
Video examples
The urgent need for...
decades of terrorism and violence and the lynching that we are trying to memorialize terrorize people of color in this community we've never talked about thousands of people pulled into the
Video examples
A vision for the future...
there wasn't a single incident of lynching or spitting or insulting of the Tulpa our society is a consensus on making peace our values need to be reframed from war to peace and the
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Alice Walker
American Author
I grew up in the South under segregation. So, I know what terrorism feels like - when your father could be taken out in the middle of the night and lynched just because he didn't look like he was in an obeying frame of mind when a white person said something he must do. I mean, that's terrorism, too.
Quote examples
Carter G. Woodson
American Historian
As another has well said, to handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching.
Quote examples
Samuel L. Jackson
Actor
People know about the Klan and the overt racism, but the killing of one's soul little by little, day after day, is a lot worse than someone coming in your house and lynching you.
Quote examples
David Shields
American Author
From the first slave ship arriving in harbor, America stole and judged blacks. Black life that didn't fit into white logic was commercially exploited or lynched.
Quote examples
Kyle MacLachlan
American Actor
Lynch is not as strange as his films. He's a complex guy with a very interesting view of the world. But he's very accessible, with a good heart.
Quote examples
Martin Luther King, Jr.
American Leader
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.
Quote examples
David Hewson
British Author
I'm much more likely to get lynched over 'The Killing' than 'Macbeth.
Quote examples
Jack Kevorkian
American Activist
This is not a trial. This is a lynching. There is no law.
Quote examples
Bob Filner
American Politician
I started my political career facing lynch mobs.
Quote examples
Henry Louis Gates
American Critic
Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.
Quote examples
Alice Walker
American Author
I grew up in the South under segregation. So, I know what terrorism feels like - when your father could be taken out in the middle of the night and lynched just because he didn't look like he was in an obeying frame of mind when a white person said something he must do. I mean, that's terrorism, too.
Quote examples
Carter G. Woodson
American Historian
As another has well said, to handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching.
Quote examples
Samuel L. Jackson
Actor
People know about the Klan and the overt racism, but the killing of one's soul little by little, day after day, is a lot worse than someone coming in your house and lynching you.
Quote examples
David Shields
American Author
From the first slave ship arriving in harbor, America stole and judged blacks. Black life that didn't fit into white logic was commercially exploited or lynched.
Quote examples
Kyle MacLachlan
American Actor
Lynch is not as strange as his films. He's a complex guy with a very interesting view of the world. But he's very accessible, with a good heart.
Quote examples
Martin Luther King, Jr.
American Leader
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.
Quote examples
David Hewson
British Author
I'm much more likely to get lynched over 'The Killing' than 'Macbeth.
Quote examples
Jack Kevorkian
American Activist
This is not a trial. This is a lynching. There is no law.
Quote examples
Bob Filner
American Politician
I started my political career facing lynch mobs.
Quote examples
Henry Louis Gates
American Critic
Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.
Example 1 of 10
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