Definitions

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

  • adjective Awkwardly tall or long-limbed; rangy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Awkward and sprawling in walking; loose-jointed.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Awkwardly tall and thin, ungraceful.
  • noun A member of a gang.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective tall and thin and having long slender limbs
  • adjective tall and thin

Etymologies

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

[Perhaps from dialectal gang, to go, from Middle English gangen, from Old English gangan.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Perhaps from *gangle, from the dialectal gang ("to go, to walk, to proceed").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From gang +‎ -ling.

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Examples

Comments

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  • This one is entering her teens,

    Ripe for sentimental scenes,

    Has picked a gangling unripe male,

    Sees herself in a bridal veil,

    Presses lips and tosses head,

    Declares she's not too young to wed,

    Informs you pertly you forget

    Romeo and Juliet.

    Do not argue, do not shout;

    Remind her how that one turned out.

    - Ogden Nash, 'The Romantic Age'.

    July 28, 2009

  • Haha! Nice verse bilbs, though I should probably be thanking Ogden Nash.

    July 28, 2009