witch hunt
nounDefinition of witch hunt
1
: a searching out for persecution of persons accused of witchcraft
2
: the searching out and deliberate harassment of those (such as political opponents) with unpopular views
Keep scrolling for more
Examples of witch hunt in a Sentence
He was the victim of a congressional witch hunt against Communists.
Recent Examples on the Web
The couple pleaded not guilty when they were arraigned, and Rep. Hunter has maintained that the prosecution is a politically motivated witch hunt. — San Diego Union-Tribune, "Delay in Rep. Duncan Hunter’s criminal case puts crimp in GOP primary calendar," 22 Aug. 2019 Trump has called the various legal challenges and investigations presidential harassment and a partisan witch hunt. — Bart Jansen, USA TODAY, "Hope Hicks, former Trump aide, stands by House testimony despite demand for clarification," 15 Aug. 2019 Quinn said Amazon has since changed its explanation for terminating the contract to blaming Allen for making statements saying that the #MeToo movement should not become a witch hunt. — Larry Neumeister, The Seattle Times, "Amazon: Woody Allen’s #MeToo comments wrecked movie deal," 15 Apr. 2019 But at the time of the congressional hearings on the murals, the Wisconsin senator’s witch hunt was in full swing. — Gary Kamiya, SFChronicle.com, "When a red-hunting Congress took on SF murals — and lost," 14 June 2019 Since the publication of the guideline, the American Medical Association, the American Association of Family Physicians, and other organizations have repudiated the science, logic, and conclusions of the CDC guideline and of the DEA’s witch hunt. — STAT, "Stop persecuting doctors for legitimately prescribing opioids for chronic pain," 28 June 2019 After that year’s election, Mr. Manafort became a central figure in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian election interference, which Mr. Trump has called a witch hunt. — Corinne Ramey, WSJ, "Manafort Pleads Not Guilty to 16 Additional State Charges," 27 June 2019 Increasingly, those who had inherited white Protestant traditions defined themselves around racial and ethnic homogeneity, as cultural oppositions began to harden. Anti-immigrant witch hunts and lynch mobs ensued. — Sarah Churchwell, The New York Review of Books, "America’s Original Identity Politics," 7 Feb. 2019 Few writers have recreated the pedantic trappings of university faculty quite so faithfully as McCarthy, who crafts an interdepartmental witch hunt like no other. — Adrienne Westenfeld, Town & Country, "The Ultimate Preppy College Reading List," 3 Oct. 2014These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'witch hunt.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Keep scrolling for more
Keep scrolling for more