to force (a person) into military or naval service.
to coerce (a person) into taking a certain action, political stand, etc..
to be press-ganged into endorsing a candidate.
to force (a person) to join the navy or army by a press gang
to induce (a person) to perform a duty by forceful persuasion
his friends press-ganged him into joining the committee
First recorded in 1685–95
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He either issues puffs of air or decisions with the nuance of a press gang.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 2, 2022
Faced with a blank no comment, one of the Downing Street press gang instead quizzed the PM’s spokesperson on the status of the U.K’s pig semen deal with China, to the sniggers of colleagues.
From Time ● Sep. 21, 2015
I considered that again because I felt that if I did so I would be immediately accused of trying to influence or press gang someone.
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2013
While she was there, a young admirer of hers was seized by the navy press gang.
From Superwomen by Terhune, Albert Payson
Of course she didn't know, but all the town were talking of the men who had been taken away by the press gang, and she thought they must have clapped hands on her lodger.
From The Bravest of the Brave — or, with Peterborough in Spain by Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
It’s not unusual for a real-life figure like this to appear in fiction, but it might be pushing at the bounds of propriety to press-gang him into parenthood.
From New York Times ● Feb. 20, 2019
It’s one thing for Hawley to pay homage to all of the Coen Brothers’ creations with “Fargo”; it’s quite another to press-gang a wholly unrelated horror icon into the X-Men cinematic universe.
From New York Times ● Feb. 22, 2017
From Plato's allegory of the cave onward, the point of allegory has been to press-gang narrative into the service of exposition.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 13, 2010
The first tests, moreover, are bungled; but eventually, after an Army doctor has died, a soldier has been inoculated by press-gang methods, and four others have become guinea pigs voluntarily, experiment turns into proof.
From Time Magazine Archive
It is but a step from a press-gang to a Press Bureau.
From The School and the World by Gollancz, Victor
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
