lyncher

to lynch

verb lan-SHEH Rare

Origin: from Captain William Lynch, 18th-century American vigilante

Usage Note

Lyncher means to kill or attack someone extrajudicially by a mob. In modern French it is also used hyperbolically for fierce collective criticism: se faire lyncher sur les réseaux sociaux ('to get torn apart on social media'). The derived noun is lynchage.

Examples

"La foule voulait le lyncher."

Natural Translation

The crowd wanted to lynch him.

Literal Translation

The crowd wanted him to-lynch.

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