tar and feather

verb, smear with tar and then cover with feathers as a punishment (“tar 1” COD)

“They were harassed, yeah. Like a lot of the Loyalists were being tarred and feathered back in those days.”

“After 1775, the Loyalists were getting hard done by, and they were getting their barns burnt and their stock stolen, and then they were rode out of town on rails and tarred and feathered and so on.”