witch-hunting

English

Noun

witch-hunting (uncountable)

  1. (chiefly historical) Engagement in a witch-hunt; searching for witches or for evidence against them.
    • 1965, Attila Zohar, Kings Cross Black Magic, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 88:
      Witch-hunting became a mania, with all the abuses and excesses which invariably develop with fanaticism.
    • 2017, Ronald Hutton, The Witch, Yale University Press, published 2018, page 29:
      Witch-hunting has often been prominent both in revolutionary movements which directly opposed and helped to end colonialism or white supremacy, and in the successor states, under native regimes, which emerged out of the former colonies.
  2. Engagement in a political witch-hunt; unjust or ideologicallt motivated persecution.
    • 2003, Andy Wilson, The Guardian, 24 April:
      Noble had accused the Rugby Football League of "an element of witch-hunting" before accompanying Fielden to his disciplinary hearing, which he admitted was "disruptive" in cup final week.
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.