chain gang

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noun

a group of convicts chained together, especially when working outside.

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Origin of chain gang

First recorded in 1825–35

Words nearby chain gang

chain drive, chaîné, Chained Lady, chainfall, chain fern, chain gang, chain gear, chain grate, chain letter, chain lightning, chain-link

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use chain gang in a sentence

On tour, Cooke’s bus was pulled over, and he and his band came upon an actual chain gang, Cooke taking a few minutes to speak to the men who were shackled to each other, like the men at the oars in the slave ships, only now upright.
The Night Sam Cooke Made ‘Chain Gang’ a Hymn to Freedom|Colin Fleming|October 17, 2021|The Daily Beast
How do you feel about Archer and the gang abandoning the cartel and returning to the office?
‘Archer’ Creator Adam Reed Spills Season 6 Secrets, From Surreal Plotlines to Life Post-ISIS|Marlow Stern|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Gang tattoos are still inked onto his face, like scarlet letters.
How Good Dads Can Change the World|Gary Barker, PhD, Michael Kaufman|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The End of Gangs By Sam Quinones, Pacific-Standard Los Angeles gave America the modern street gang.
The Daily Beast’s Best Longreads, Dec 29-Jan 4, 2014|William Boot|January 4, 2015|DAILY BEAST

Police Superintendent Michael Harrison said the decline was a result of an effort to decrease gang violence.
America’s 2014 Murder Capital|Brandy Zadrozny|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST
You expect soldiers of all ranks to understand the need to respect the chain of command, regardless of personal feelings.
We Need Our Police to Be Better Than This|Nick Gillespie|December 31, 2014|DAILY BEAST
She stood, in her young purity, at one end of the chain of years, and Mrs. Chepstow—did she really stand at the other?
Bella Donna|Robert Hichens
Then he closed the spring with a snap, and she let him pass the chain over her hand once more.
Rosemary in Search of a Father|C. N. Williamson
When Michael needed fresh supplies, he was not long in gathering a gang of harpies about him.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV.|Various
I like sus-sus-pen-sheen bridges that fly from bank to bank, with one big step, like a gang-plank.
Kipling Stories and Poems Every Child Should Know, Book II|Rudyard Kipling
He captured two, whom he shot, and burned two or three houses whose owners had been harboring the gang.
The Courier of the Ozarks|Byron A. Dunn

British Dictionary definitions for chain gang

chain gang

noun

US a group of convicted prisoners chained together, usually while doing hard labour

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

chain gang

Origin of chain gang

Words nearby chain gang

Words related to chain gang

How to use chain gang in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for chain gang