tar-and-feather
Colonial vigilante justice
Tar-and-feather is to coat someone with hot tar and cover them with feathers as punishment or humiliation.
The practice was used in colonial America and frontier justice, sometimes fatally.
The term now usually appears figuratively for any harsh public shaming or vigilante treatment: The media tar-and-feathered the disgraced executive.
Punishment for wrongdoing
- penaltyPunishment for wrongdoing
- chastisementFormal scolding or correction
- corporalOf the flesh
- floggingBeating as punishment
discipline · consequence · sanction · castigation · humiliation · shaming · branding · pillory
Extralegal justice-seeker
- lynchMob killing, typically hanging
- mobDisorderly, aggressive crowd
- riotViolent public disturbance
- vigilantismExtralegal enforcement by civilians
posse · roughneck · rabble · townsfolk · outrage · uprising · unrest · insurrection
Indication of potential harm
- coercionPressured compliance through threats
- terrorizeFrighten into submission
- menaceSource of potential harm
- warningAlert about danger
deterrence · persecution · harassment · reprisal · exile · banishment · expulsion · blacklist
Of occupied territories
- revolutionarySeeking fundamental systemic change
- ToryBritish right-wing partisan
- BritishOf the United Kingdom
- frontierEdge of settlement
retribution
Punishment for wrongdoing
- penaltyPunishment for wrongdoing
- chastisementFormal scolding or correction
- corporalOf the flesh
flogging · discipline · consequence · sanction · castigation · humiliation · shaming · branding · pillory · stocks
vigilante
Extralegal justice-seeker
vigilantism · posse · roughneck · rabble · townsfolk · outrage · uprising · unrest · insurrection · lawlessness
threat
Indication of potential harm
- coercionPressured compliance through threats
- terrorizeFrighten into submission
- menaceSource of potential harm
warning · deterrence · persecution · harassment · reprisal · exile · banishment · expulsion · blacklist · ostracism
colonial
Of occupied territories
- revolutionarySeeking fundamental systemic change
- ToryBritish right-wing partisan
- BritishOf the United Kingdom
tar-and-featherexonerate
Clear of wrongdoing
acquit · pardon · vindicate · due process · fair trial
feather, tarred, tarring, tarry, feathers, feathered, feathering, feathery