witch-hunt
UK/ˈwɪtʃhʌnt/
witch-hunt noun: a search for people believed to be using sorcery or harmful magic, typically in order to persecute or punish them.
Noun
witch-hunt (plural witch-hunts)
- A search for people believed to be using sorcery or harmful magic, typically in order to persecute or punish them.
- To-night ye will see. It is the great witch-hunt, and many will be smelt out as wizards and slain.1885, H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines
- Simpkins told us that before the days of English witch hunts, the coven organised public and popular festivities such as on the great days of May Eve, Hallowe'en, Candlemas and Lammas. These were called Witches' Sabbats or Frolics.1965, Attila Zohar, Kings Cross Black Magic, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 71
- An attempt to find and punish or harass a group of people perceived as a threat, usually on ideological or political grounds.
- Rank-and-file Communists everywhere are led away on a senseless witch-hunt after 'Trotskyists'.1938 April, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Homage to Catalonia, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC
- A public or political campaign or investigation which smears a person or group.
- Even fewer people could believe that the UNCW administration would actually undertake a witch hunt against me, even going so far as to invoke their right to read my personal e-mails because they were on the university's system.2008, Mike Adams, Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts "Womyn" on Campus, Penguin, →ISBN
- I defended myself vigorously on that complaint as well; also mentioning that Julie Ann Wilks had always disliked me and had been conducting “a witch hunt” against me. As soon as I said the words “witch hunt” Katy interrupted and wouldn't let me continue […]2012, Hugh Maguire, My First 40 Jobs: A Memoir, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 308
Verb
witch-hunt (third-person singular simple present witch-hunts, present participle witch-hunting, simple past and past participle witch-hunted)
- To aggressively pursue, investigate, or persecute individuals or groups based on unsubstantiated accusations, often driven by fear, ideology, political expediency, moral panic, etc.
witch-hunt meaning in Tamil, Kannada, Arabic and Malay
witch-hunt in Tamil
- ஐயுறவு வேட்டை, பலிவாங்த் துரத்தல், பலிவேட்டை
witch-hunt in Kannada
- ಶಿಕ್ಷಿಸುವಿಕೆ, ದಂಡಿಸುವಿಕೆ, ಶಿಕ್ಷಿಸುವುದು, ದಂಡಿಸುವುದು
witch-hunt in Arabic
- persecution of persons believed to be using magic
- مُطَارَدَةُ السَّاحِرَاتِ muṭāradatu s-sāḥirāti
witch-hunt in Malay
- persecution of persons believed to be using magic
- memburu ahli sihir, penyihir memburu
More languagesFewer languages
- witch-hunt in Indonesian
- perburuan penyihir
- witch-hunt in Thai
- การล่าแม่มด gaan-lâa-mɛ̂ɛ-mót
Examples of witch-hunt in a sentence
- The rupturing of British rule over India in the rebellion of 1857 permitted a great witch-hunt, with lethal effects, to occur among the tribes of northern India.2017, Ronald Hutton, The Witch, Yale University Press, published 2018, page 27:
- The media is really on a witch-hunt against me.2016 May 15, Donald Trump, tweet quoted in 2019, Lindy West, The Witches Are Coming, Hachette Books
Forms of witch-hunt
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | witch-hunts |
| alternative form | witchhunt |
| alternative form | witch hunt |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | witch-hunts |
| present participle | witch-hunting |
| past participle | witch-hunted |
| past | witch-hunted |
Origin of witch-hunt
From witch + hunt.
Questions about witch-hunt
- What does witch-hunt mean?
- Witch-hunt means a search for people believed to be using sorcery or harmful magic, typically in order to persecute or punish them.
- What is witch-hunt in Tamil?
- Witch-hunt in Tamil is ஐயுறவு வேட்டை, பலிவாங்த் துரத்தல், பலிவேட்டை. See Witch-hunt meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use witch-hunt in a sentence?
- The rupturing of British rule over India in the rebellion of 1857 permitted a great witch-hunt, with lethal effects, to occur among the tribes of northern India.
- What part of speech is witch-hunt?
- Witch-hunt can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce witch-hunt?
- Witch-hunt is pronounced /ˈwɪtʃhʌnt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of witch-hunt?
- The plural of witch-hunt is witch-hunts.
Words near witch-hunt in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: witch-hunt (page history and authors); witch-hunt (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); witch-hunt (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-witch-hunt.wav.
Cite this entry: “witch-hunt.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/witch-hunt. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.