press gang
noun
a body of persons under the command of an officer, formerly employed to impress others for service, especially in the navy or army.
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press gang
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press-gang
press-gangverb (used with object)to force (a person) into military or naval service.
press gang
1 American
Or
pressgang
noun
press-gang
2
American
[pres-gang]
/ ˈprɛsˌgæŋ /
verb (used with object)
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to force (a person) into military or naval service.
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to coerce (a person) into taking a certain action, political stand, etc..
to be press-ganged into endorsing a candidate.
press gang
British
noun
verb
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to force (a person) to join the navy or army by a press gang
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to induce (a person) to perform a duty by forceful persuasion
his friends press-ganged him into joining the committee
Etymology
Origin of press gang
First recorded in 1685–95
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
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
It happened at a time when the press gang were more than usually busy in Orkney pressing men for a frigate that lay in Stromness harbour.
From The Pilots of Pomona by Robert Leighton
It is told of Matthew that once when he was "on a time," the press gang took him and his boon companion on board a man- of-war and induced them to enlist.
From The Chignecto Isthmus and its first settlers by Howard Trueman
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
The English sailor was often snared into the active service of his country sorely against his will by means of the odious instrument for recruiting known as the press-gang.
From A History of the Four Georges and of William IV, Volume III by Justin McCarthy
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.
