From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishwitch-huntˈwitch-hunt noun [countable] CRUELan attempt to find and punish people in a society or organization whose opinions are regarded as wrong or dangerous – used to show disapproval anti-Communist witch-hunts
Examples from the Corpus
witch-hunt• He does not want the army to feel that it is the subject of a witch-hunt.• McCarthy's Communist witch-hunt had been unleashed with the support of leading Republicans and had undoubtedly helped to elect Eisenhower in 1952.• Nor did a demagogue emerge to match Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose cynical witch-hunts in the l950s put a generation on trial.• The investigation is just another political witch-hunt.• And for Rome to acquiesce in such witch-hunts must indicate that Rome herself felt threatened.• His accusation got nowhere, but it foreshadowed the witch-hunt.• But the end of McCarthy by no means meant the end of the witch-hunt. 