Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The administration of summary punishment, especially death, for a crime or public offense, without authority of law.
Etymologies
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Examples
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When I cast my eyes over our Southern region, -- the land of bowie-knives, lynch-law, and duels, of
Cotton is King, and Pro-Slavery Arguments Comprising the Writings of Hammond, Harper, Christy, Stringfellow, Hodge, Bledsoe, and Cartrwright on This Important Subject E. N. [Editor] Elliott
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They seemed to see a frowzy desperado, shaggy as a bison, in a red shirt and jackboots, hung about the waist with an assortment of six-shooters and bowie-knives, and standing against a background of mustangs, monte-banks, and lynch-law.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 09, No. 51, January, 1862 Various
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A great deal has been said and written lately about feuds and lynch-law in the districts around the lower Mississippi.
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Is it not a fact that for years in every newly settled western state lynch-law has been the unchallenged, unanimous verdict for a horse thief?
The Bishop of Cottontown A Story of the Southern Cotton Mills John Trotwood Moore
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The Wild West story, for instance, with its cattle-rustlers, lynch-law and other paraphernalia belonging to the eighties, is a curiously archaic thing.
Boys' Weeklies 1940
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In the same neighbourhood there lives a Mayor who, after having seen his young wife murdered, protected her murderers from the lynch-law of the mob when next day the town was recaptured.
Out To Win The Story of America in France Coningsby Dawson 1921
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For I've been most emphatic to Whinstane Sandy in the matter of his delightful little lynch-law program.
The Prairie Mother Arthur Stringer 1912
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That influence, I mean, which is striving so hard to discredit me that lynch-law has been hinted for poor Fear if I should clear him!
The Conquest of Canaan Booth Tarkington 1907
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In this case, if there is any miscarriage of justice, I will say here and now that in my opinion the people of this county will be sorely tempted; and while I do not believe in lynch-law, yet if that should be the result it is my unalterable conviction that the vigilantes may well turn their attention to the lawyers -- OR LAWYER -- who bring about such miscarriage.
The Conquest of Canaan Booth Tarkington 1907
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That influence, I mean, which is striving so hard to discredit me that lynch-law has been hinted for poor Fear if I should clear him!
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