tarring and feathering
Colonial vigilante justice
Tarring and feathering is a form of mob punishment in which the victim is coated in hot tar and covered with feathers, then paraded publicly.
The practice was used in colonial America and continued sporadically into the twentieth century as vigilante justice against those seen as traitors, criminals, or social transgressors.
Now used figuratively for any harsh public humiliation or condemnation: The press gave him a real tarring and feathering after the scandal broke.
- angry mobHostile crowd seeking retribution
- mobDisorderly, aggressive crowd
- vigilanteExtralegal justice-seeker
- rough justiceApproximate, harsh fairness
- mob ruleDominance by unruly crowds
punishment · humiliation · public shaming · run out of town · colonial · colonial America · pine tar · public · spectacle · town square · revenge · crowd · justice · outcast · sticky · stripping · shame · riot
- punishmentsjail, prison, timeout, grounded, fine
- vigilantismvigilante, vigilantism, lynch mob, lynching, mob justice
- American RevolutionDeclaration of Independence, Boston Tea Party, Continental Congress, founding fathers, Stamp Act
- frontier crimescattle rustling, horse theft, train robbery, stagecoach robbery, bank robbery
- pirate punishmentswalking the plank, keelhauling, marooning, keel hauling, plank walking
- condemnationcondemnation, censure, rebuke, denunciation, reproach
tarring and featheringpardon
Official release from punishment
amnesty · clemency · acquittal · absolution · reprieve
tarring and featheringticker-tape parade
Celebratory march through falling paper
hero's welcome · canonization · enshrinement · standing ovation · red carpet treatment
tarring and featheringdue process
Guaranteed judicial fairness
fair trial · judicial proceedings · rule of law · legal protection · court hearing
tarring, tarred, feather, feathering, feathered, feathers, feathery