Definition

Verb: * To cover a person's body with hot tar and then with feathers as a form of public humiliation and punishment.

Usage

This verb describes a specific, historical act of mob punishment. It is almost always used in the passive voice ("was tarred and feathered") to describe what was done to the victim. The act itself is considered brutal and archaic.

Examples

• Historical records show that protesters against British rule were sometimes tarred and feathered by loyalists.
• The angry mob threatened to tar-and-feather the corrupt official if he returned to town.
• In the old frontier town, cattle rustlers could be tarred and feathered and run out on a rail.

Advanced Usage

• Figurative Use: The phrase can be used metaphorically to describe a severe public shaming or criticism, though this is less common.
  • The company was tarred and feathered in the press for its environmental record.

Variants and Related Words

• Tarring and feathering (noun): The act or practice of applying this punishment.
  • Tarring and feathering was a form of vigilante justice.

Synonyms

• Punish publicly
• Humiliate
• Lynch (in the broader sense of mob violence)

Notes

"Tar-and-feather" is a compound verb derived from the nouns "tar" and "feather." The action involves both substances sequentially. It is a fixed phrase, and the order of the words is not changed.

Verb

1. smear the body of (someone) with tar and feathers; done in some societies as punishment
   • The thief was tarred and feathered