road gang

noun

1. a group of workers employed to repair or build roads.

2. (in the U.S.) a detail of prisoners set to repairing a road.

Word History and Origins

Origin of road gang¹

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

Highly visible and degrading convict labor on road gangs was used to structure racial hierarchy in the Zone.

From Salon

Jackson answered while working on a road gang to fulfill his sentence, picking up trash on the side of a Michigan highway.

From Washington Post

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., holder of degrees from at least five colleges, may spend the time on a road gang if an appeal is denied.

From Washington Times

Each day for the past five months, a road gang has toiled on a Sisyphean task along the muddy Atlantic Coast, trying to fill a breach in a 60-mile sea wall with stones and sand.

From New York Times

The Stop/Go man with one of the road gangs says things are better on the Numbinbah Valley Road, another of my favourite motorbike routes back to the Gold Coast.

From The Guardian