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gang1

[gang]
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noun
  1. a group or band: A gang of boys gathered around the winning pitcher.
  2. a group of youngsters or adolescents who associate closely, often exclusively, for social reasons, especially such a group engaging in delinquent behavior.
  3. a group of people with compatible tastes or mutual interests who gather together for social reasons: I'm throwing a party for the gang I bowl with.
  4. a group of persons working together; squad; shift: a gang of laborers.
  5. a group of persons associated for some criminal or other antisocial purpose: a gang of thieves.
  6. a set of tools, electronic components or circuits, oars, etc., arranged to work together or simultaneously.
  7. a group of identical or related items.
verb (used with object)
  1. to arrange in groups or sets; form into a gang: to gang illustrations for more economical printing on one sheet.
  2. to attack in a gang.
verb (used without object)
  1. to form or act as a gang: Cutthroats who gang together hang together.
Verb Phrases
  1. gang up on, Informal. (of a number of persons) to unite in opposition to (a person); combine against: The bigger boys ganged up on the smaller ones in the schoolyard.

Origin of gang1

1300–50; Middle English; Old English gang, gong manner of going, way, passage; cognate with Old High German gang, Old Norse gangr, Gothic gagg; cf. gang2

Synonyms

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1. company, crowd, crew; party, set, clique, coterie. 4. team.

gang2

[gang]
verb (used without object) Chiefly Scot. and North England.
  1. to walk or go.

Origin of gang2

before 900; Middle English gangen, Old English gangan, gongan; cognate with Old High German gangan, Old Norse ganga, Gothic gaggan; cf. gang1, noun derivative from same base
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for gang

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • But no doubt the gang had thought caution to be the better part of hate.

  • "And that's why she's here now with a gang of crooks," he retorted.

    Within the Law

    Marvin Dana

  • Then, when you get in with the right people, you will open the front door some night and let in the gang.

    Within the Law

    Marvin Dana

  • I want to be sure to give the Turner woman time to get here while that gang is at work.

    Within the Law

    Marvin Dana

  • If you're caught here to-night, where would you get off—caught here with a gang of burglars?

    Within the Law

    Marvin Dana

British Dictionary definitions for gang

gang1

noun
  1. a group of people who associate together or act as an organized body, esp for criminal or illegal purposes
  2. an organized group of workmen
  3. a herd of buffaloes or elks or a pack of wild dogs
  4. NZ a group of shearers who travel to different shearing sheds, shearing, classing, and baling wool
    1. a series of similar tools arranged to work simultaneously in parallel
    2. (as modifier)a gang saw
verb
  1. to form into, become part of, or act as a gang
  2. (tr) electronics to mount (two or more components, such as variable capacitors) on the same shaft, permitting adjustment by a single control
See also gang up
Derived Formsganged, adjective

Word Origin

Old English gang journey; related to Old Norse gangr, Old High German gang, Sanskrit jangha foot

gang2

verb
  1. Scot to go

Word Origin

Old English gangan to go 1

gang3

noun
  1. a variant spelling of gangue
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for gang

n.

from Old English gang "a going, journey, way, passage," and Old Norse gangr "a group of men, a set," both from Proto-Germanic *gangaz (cf. Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Danish, Dutch, Old High German, German gang, Old Norse gangr, Gothic gagg "act of going"), from PIE root *ghengh- "to step" (cf. Sanskrit jangha "shank," Avestan zanga- "ankle," Lithuanian zengiu "I stride"). Thus not considered to be related to go.

The sense evolution is probably via meaning "a set of articles that usually are taken together in going" (mid-14c.), especially a set of tools used on the same job. By 1620s this had been extended in nautical speech to mean "a company of workmen," and by 1630s the word was being used, with disapproving overtones, for "any band of persons traveling together." Gangway preserves the original sense of the word, as does gangplank.

v.

1856, from gang (n.). Related: Ganged; ganging. To gang up (on) is first attested 1919.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

Idioms and Phrases with gang

gang

In addition to the idiom beginning with gang

also see:

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.