witch-hunt

plural witch-hunts · alternative witchhunt · alternative witch hunt

1. historicalA 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

   2 more examples

   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

   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

2. broadlyfigurativelyAn 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

3. broadlyfigurativelyA public or political campaign or investigation which smears a person or group.

   The media is really on a witch-hunt against me. False reporting, and plenty of it - but we will prevail!

   2016 May 15, Donald Trump, tweet quoted in 2019, Lindy West, The Witches Are Coming, Hachette Books

   3 more examples

   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

   “It is striking how poorly his usual playbook will work for the Epstein files debacle,” Ford wrote, adding that Trump “cannot credibly claim that he is the victim of some kind of ‘witch hunt,’ even though he is trying to do so.”

   2025 July 22, Jennifer Bowers Bahney, “'Struggling' Trump spirals as 'usual playbook' fails to get him out of jam: report”, in Raw Story

present singular third person witch-hunts · participle present witch-hunting · participle past witch-hunted · past witch-hunted · alternative witchhunt · alternative witch hunt

1. figurativelyinformaltransitiveTo aggressively pursue, investigate, or persecute individuals or groups based on unsubstantiated accusations, often driven by fear, ideology, political expediency, moral panic, etc.