gang

1 of 3

noun

ˈgaŋ 

plural gangs

1

: group: such as

a

: a group of persons working to unlawful or antisocial ends

especially : a band of antisocial adolescents

b

: a group of persons working together

2

: a group of persons having informal and usually close social relations

watching TV with the gang

3

a

: a set of articles : outfit

a gang of oars

b

: a combination of similar implements or devices arranged for convenience to act together

a gang of saws

gang

2 of 3

verb (1)

ganged; ganging; gangs

intransitive verb

: to move or act as a gang

Her opponents ganged together to oppose her nomination.

see also gang up

transitive verb

1

: to attack (a person) as a gang

They ganged him and took his money.

2

a

: to assemble (mechanical or electronic parts) so that they may be operated simultaneously as a group

Potentiometers are often ganged together so that the resistance in several circuits can be changed simultaneously.

—Richard Fowler

b

: to arrange or produce (something, such as pages of typeset material) together as a unit

… ganged the printing of 2000 cards to achieve a cost-efficient price per card of 38 cents.

—Vilma Barr

—often used with up

Where decals are large they may be printed singly; where small, more than one may be ganged up on one screen to save effort and to produce more copies in one impression.

—Albert Kosloff

gang

3 of 3

verb (2)

ganged; ganging; gangs

intransitive verb

Scotland

: go

Synonyms

Noun

• army
• band
• brigade
• company
• crew
• outfit
• party
• platoon
• squad
• team

Examples of gang in a Sentence

Noun

a gang of drug dealers

He is in a gang.

He was shot by a member of a rival gang.

the gang at the office

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Jung will play a former youth boxing champion turned gang member, who is seeking redemption as a small-town boxing coach. —Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 14 May 2025

When all four women are arrested for drug use, they are bailed out by a local drug dealer named Alien (Franco) and quickly become embroiled in Alien's turf wars with other gang members in the area. —Tommy McArdle, People.com, 14 May 2025

Verb

Diaz, Sanchez and Lerma ganged together at the far post, where they were joined, at the last second, by left-back Johan Mojica. —Jack Lang, The Athletic, 14 July 2024

And in terms of regulation, his policies aren’t very surprising: Republicans and deregulation often gang together like salt and pepper. —Byalena Botros, Fortune, 6 Nov. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English, "going, journey, road, path, privy, group of items forming a set," going back to Old English, "going, walking, journey, course, path, privy," going back to Germanic *ganga- (whence Old Saxon gang "walk, course," Old High German "walk, journey, passage," Old Norse gangr "going, course," Gothic gagg "way"), noun derivative from the base of *gangan- "to go" — more at gang entry 3

Note: The meaning "set of articles" apparently first appeared in Middle English, the now predominant meaning "group of persons" in early Modern English (hypothesized instances of this sense in Middle and Old English are dubious). A direct descendant of Old English gang in Modern English would be gong (with the effects of vowel lengthening before the cluster -ŋg- and subsequent rounding of the long vowel in monosyllables), but this survived into Modern English only in the sense "privy"—the now general form gang for other senses was borrowed into standard English from northern dialects and Scots, where rounding never occurred. Use of both the noun and verb gang in its historical senses, denoting motion or passage, is now largely limited to traditional Scots.

Verb (1)

derivative of gang entry 1

Verb (2)

Middle English gangen, gongen & early Scots gang, going back to Old English gangan, gongan, going back to Germanic *gangan- (whence Old Saxon & Old High German gangan"to go," Old Norse ganga, Gothic gaggan), probably going back to Indo-European *ǵhenǵh-i̯̯e-, whence also Lithuanian žeñgti "to stride"

Note: Old English gangan, a Class VII strong verb, was used more or less as a synonym of gān, the ancestor of Modern English go entry 1 (itself descended from Germanic *gēn-), though forms other than the present tense and infinitive rarely occur. In other Germanic languages cognates of gangan served and still serve as suppletive forms of the parallel cognates of gān. Compare note at gang entry 1.

First Known Use

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 3a

Verb (1)

1791, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense

Verb (2)

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing gang

• anti-gang
• chain gang
• gang bang
• gang hook
• gang rape
• gang-tackle
• gang up
• inter-gang
• press-gang
• section gang

Rhymes for gang

• bang
• chuang
• clang
• dang
• drang
• fang
• gangue
• hang
• hange
• kang
• kiang
• langue

Kids Definition

gang

1 of 2 noun

ˈgaŋ 

1

: two or more tools or devices arranged to work together

2

: a group of persons working or going about together

3

: a group of persons associated together to do something illegal

4

: a group of friends

gang

2 of 2 verb

: to form into or move or act as a gang

Legal Definition

gang

noun

: a group of persons associating for antisocial and often criminal purposes and activities