lynch

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to kill someone without legal authority or a trial, especially by a mob and often by hanging

   The mob threatened to lynch the prisoner before he could stand trial.

From the late-18th-century American expression Lynch's law, meaning punishment without a legal trial. The name is commonly associated with Virginia justice Charles Lynch, who imposed extralegal penalties during the American Revolution, although the exact namesake has been disputed.

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