Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A group of criminals or hoodlums who band together for mutual protection and profit.
  • noun A group of adolescents who band together, especially a group of delinquents.
  • noun Informal A group of people who associate regularly on a social basis.
  • noun A group of laborers organized together on one job or under one foreperson.
  • noun A matched or coordinated set, as of tools.
  • noun A pack of wolves or wild dogs.
  • noun A herd, especially of buffalo or elk.
  • intransitive verb To band together as a group or gang.
  • intransitive verb To arrange or assemble into a group, as for simultaneous operation or production.
  • intransitive verb To attack as an organized group.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To arrange in gangs; combine (several) into one set, to be operated together: as, to gang saws, plows, or the like. See gang, n., 9.
  • noun Nautical, a set of standing rigging.
  • To go; walk; proceed.
  • noun A going; walking; ability to walk.
  • noun Currency.
  • noun A way; course; passage.
  • noun The channel of a stream, or the course in which it is wont to run; a watercourse.
  • noun Hence A ravine or gulley.
  • noun In mining. See gangue.
  • noun The field or pasture in which animals graze: as, those beasts have a good gang.
  • noun A number going or acting in company, whether of persons or of animals: as, a gang of drovers; a gang of elks.
  • noun A number of workmen or laborers of any kind engaged on any piece of work under supervision of one person; a squad; more particularly, a shift of men; a set of laborers working together during the same hours.
  • noun A combination of several tools, machines, etc., operated by a single force, or so contrived as to act as one: as, a gang of saws or plows; a gang of fish-hooks; a gang of mine-cars, tubs, or trams.
  • noun As much as one goes for or carries at once; a go.
  • noun A retired place; a privy; a jakes.
  • noun Synonyms Covey, etc. See flock.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To go; to walk.
  • noun obsolete A going; a course.
  • noun A number going in company; hence, a company, or a number of persons associated for a particular purpose; a group of laborers under one foreman; a squad
  • noun A combination of similar implements arranged so as, by acting together, to save time or labor; a set.
  • noun (Naut.) A set; all required for an outfit.
  • noun (Mining) The mineral substance which incloses a vein; a matrix; a gangue.
  • noun A group of teenagers or young adults forming a more or less formalized group associating for social purposes, in some cases requiring initiation rites to join.
  • noun A group of persons organized for criminal purposes; a criminal organization.
  • noun (Naut.) A plank within or without the bulwarks of a vessel's waist, for the sentinel to walk on.
  • noun a small cask in which to bring water aboard ships or in which it is kept on deck.
  • noun a cultivator or plow in which several shares are attached to one frame, so as to make two or more furrows at the same time.
  • noun Rogation days; the time of perambulating parishes. See Gang week (below).
  • noun a drilling machine having a number of drills driven from a common shaft.
  • noun a master or employer of a gang of workmen.
  • noun See Gang board (above).
  • noun See Gang cultivator (above).
  • noun a press for operating upon a pile or row of objects separated by intervening plates.
  • noun a saw fitted to be one of a combination or gang of saws hung together in a frame or sash, and set at fixed distances apart.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, band of men, from Old English, journey, and Old Norse -gangr, journey, group (as in thjofagangr, gang of thieves).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English gang, from Old English gang ("a journey, a way, a passage"), from Proto-Germanic *gangaz. Cognate with Dutch gang, Icelandic gangur.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English gangen, from Old English gangan ("to go, walk, turn out"), from Proto-Germanic *ganganan (“to go, walk”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰengʰ- (“to step, walk”). Cognate with Scots gang ("to go on foot, walk"), Swedish gånga ("to walk, go"), Faroese ganga ("to walk"), Icelandic ganga ("to walk, go").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

See gan.

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Examples

  • "My impression is that this is the work of a gang -- a _gang_."

    Once Aboard the Lugger 1925

  • We have a conspiracy among unscrupulous breeders to obtain this valuable cat, and hence, sir, we have a gang -- a _gang_. "

    Once Aboard the Lugger 1925

  • KING: And they were -- who gave them the term gang of five?

    CNN Transcript Sep 5, 2001 2001

  • KING: And they were -- who gave them the term gang of five?

    CNN Transcript Sep 8, 2001 2001

  • He would certainly be made use of by the officers for the purpose of identifying the companions whom he had betrayed; and I had the best reasons in the world to believe that he would rather assist in the taking of me than in the capture of all the rest of the coining gang put together -- the doctor himself not excepted.

    A Rogue's Life Wilkie Collins 1856

  • Leading Tzu-Lu and his gang is the gunslinger Jack Straw, a figure who is as much legend as reality, as much magic as lead.

    [Guest Post] Part 1: A Manifesto of Imaginative Literature by Justin Allen 2010

  • And when the gang is after you, you really need to hide out in a county jail for a while.

    Matthew Yglesias » Advice on Recession-Proofing Your Hospital 2010

  • The film certainly provides stimuli in its first 10 minutes we get our title gang of renegade heroes, evil Bolivian drug lords and their drug-mule children, a smoking school bus, girls in bikinis, enough high-caliber firepower to light up La Paz, an exploding helicopter, poignancy, death, a thirst for revenge.

    Only Action Clich 2010

  • The next day, the gang is at the airport to see off Nobu for her interview at Hokkaido.

    Lovely Complex ep 21 « Undercover 2007

  • As police investigate what they call a gang rape of a 15-year-old girl after a homecoming dance in California, the girl's parents have released a message.

    CNN Transcript Nov 2, 2009 2009

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