tar and feather
/ˈtɑr ən ˈfɛðər/
verb
- To punish or humiliate someone by covering them with hot tar and then feathers, historically used as a form of mob justice.
- Historical accounts describe how colonists would tar-and-feather British officials during protests.
- The angry crowd threatened to tar-and-feather the tax collector.
- In the old West, vigilantes would sometimes tar-and-feather criminals and run them out of town.
- To publicly shame or severely criticize someone, often in a harsh or humiliating way.
- The media seemed to tar-and-feather the politician after the scandal broke.
- He felt the committee had tarred-and-feathered him unfairly in their report.
- Online mobs can tar-and-feather someone with just a few viral posts.