gang

noun \ ˈgaŋ \

|Updated on: 13 Aug 2018

Examples: gang in a Sentence

Definition of gang

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

See gang defined for English-language learners

See gang defined for kids

Examples of gang in a Sentence

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 of gang from the Web

He was seen throwing gang signs at passing cars when a gunman in one of the cars parked, got out of the car and walked up to him.

— chicago tribune, chicagotribune.com, "Boy, 16, fatally shot on the Northwest Side among four shot in drive-bys Saturday night," 14 July 2018
José, and Yancy's daughter, Darlin, fled gang threats in their small coastal town in the Central American country on May 18, with Yancy’s brother and his daughter.

— sarah kinosian, Teen Vogue, "Reunification Proves Complicated for Families Separated at the U.S.-Mexico Border," 14 July 2018
Baylor University has settled a federal Title IX lawsuit brought by a former volleyball player who alleged that she was drugged and gang raped by at least four football players in 2012.

— BostonGlobe.com, "Knee surgery scheduled for Lonzo Ball," 14 July 2018
This is the agency that gets gangs out of our communities, that helps prevent drugs from flowing into our schools, that rescues people from human trafficking,’ Ryan said.

— james hohmann, Washington Post, "The Daily 202: GOP candidates caught in a bind on Medicaid," 13 July 2018
Lozano, 76, served for 30 years in Hammond’s federal court, presiding over cases ranging from public corruption to gang charges.

— becky jacobs, Post-Tribune, "Hammond federal judge Rudy Lozano, 76, dies," 13 July 2018
The indictments follow several high-profile cases in Maryland, including a federal investigation that found the Black Guerrilla Family gang had seized control of the Baltimore City Detention Center in 2013.

— jessica anderson, baltimoresun.com, "10 plead guilty in prison smuggling scheme, authorities say," 12 July 2018
The government has allowed the entry of international bodies like the U.N., and accepted recommendations on stopping police repression and dismantling gangs.

— vivienne walt, Time, "Meet 4 Crusaders Who Are Keeping the Dream of Democracy Alive," 12 July 2018
Bryant has long been SNL’s resident ray of sunshine and one of the forces responsible for the show’s iconic girl-gang music videos, so the recognition feels long overdue.

— anna silman, The Cut, "Sandra Oh and Issa Rae Finally Got the Emmy Nods They Deserve," 12 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'gang.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of gang

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 ³gang

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.

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

in the meaning defined at sense 3a

See Words from the same year

gang Synonyms

Synonyms

body, bunch, circle, clan, clique, community, coterie, coven, crowd, fold, lot, network, pack, ring, set;

Related Words

charmed circle, elite, in-group;

club, college, fellowship, guild (also gild), league, organization, society;

camp, faction, sect, side, tribe;

mess, squad;

brotherhood, fraternity, order, sisterhood, sodality, sorority;

commune;

alliance, bloc, coalition, confederation, congress, council, federation, union;

gang

verb

Definition of gang

ganged; ganging; gangs

transitive verb

1 a : to assemble or operate simultaneously as a group

b : to arrange in or produce as a gang

2 : to attack in a gang

Hoodlums ganged him and took his money.

intransitive verb

: to move or act as a gang

Her opponents ganged together to oppose her nomination.

— see also gang up

Recent Examples of gang from the Web

Such engines can run solo but are typically ganged together in groups of two to four.

— dan neil, WSJ, "Skip the Seasickness: How Boats Are Getting More Tech-Savvy," 28 June 2018
Gyrostabilization is used in commercial shipping, military vessels and cost-is-no-object megayachts, and the devices are easily ganged together.

— dan neil, WSJ, "Skip the Seasickness: How Boats Are Getting More Tech-Savvy," 28 June 2018
If a small majority (or even a large majority) of owners could gang together to reduce their percentage and raise others’, that would be neither fair nor honest.

— benny l. kass, chicagotribune.com, "Must owners without gardens chip in for association landscaping costs?," 15 Nov. 2017
A few days after the review appeared online, Troemel posted a side-by-side comparison and his supporters swiftly expressed their alarm over the similarity, in some cases, ganging up on Gazinskaya.

— amy verner, Vogue, "Catching Up With Vika Gazinskaya and Brad Troemel in the Wake of Fashion’s Latest Copying Debate," 13 July 2017
Backup quarterback Tyler Hilinski’s red zone series ended abruptly when defensive linemen Dan Ekuale and Hercules Mata’afa ganged up to deny tailback Gerard Wicks passage over the goal line.

— stefanie loh, The Seattle Times, "WSU practice notes: Mike Leach says, ‘We’re getting a little more consistent’," 6 Aug. 2017
Sometimes multiple guardians of the English language will gang up, employing ridicule through bad cop-bad cop ridiculing tactics.

— by emily parnell, kansascity.com, "Grammar police, do us a favor and put a sock in it," 20 June 2017
The new version faces contemporary challenges: Many species featured in the original are now considered endangered and Marvel’s Wolverine and Wolfsbane are always ganging up on our hero.

— bill keveney, USA TODAY, "Naywatch: Stop breaking 'CHiPs' off the old TV block," 13 June 2017
Residents should gang up and notify the St. Charles Police Department at 630-377-4435.

— Aurora Beacon-News, "St. Charles warns about electric services scams," 3 July 2017

Origin and Etymology of gang

derivative of ¹gang

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1791

in the meaning defined at intransitive sense

See Words from the same year

gang

verb

Definition of gang

ganged; ganging; gangs

intransitive verb

Scotland

: go

Origin and Etymology of gang

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 ¹go (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 ¹gang.

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: before 12th century

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

GANG Defined for English Language Learners

gang

noun

Definition of gang for English Language Learners

: a group of criminals
: a group of young people who do illegal things together and who often fight against other gangs
: a group of people who are friends and who do things together