Definition of "lynch-law" [lynch-law]

• The administration of summary punishment, especially death, for a crime or public offense, without authority of law. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "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?"
• "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."
• "A great deal has been said and written lately about feuds and lynch-law in the districts around the lower Mississippi."