gang up

verb

ganged up; ganging up; gangs up

intransitive verb

1

: to make a joint assault

ganged up on him and beat him up

2

: to combine for a specific purpose

ganged up to raise prices

3

: to exert group pressure

ganged up against the boss

Examples of gang up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The commenting community formed its own exoplanet to the actual content of Jezebel, occasionally ganging up on the site’s writers. —Erin Gloria Ryan, Rolling Stone, 11 Nov. 2023

To be sure, Russia continued to improve relations with China—a policy begun in the late Soviet period to prevent Beijing and Washington from ganging up on Moscow. —Thomas Graham, Foreign Affairs, 9 Oct. 2023

In the early 1900s, for example, the United Kingdom set aside its differences with France, Russia, and the United States to gang up on Germany; the result was World War I. —Michael Beckley, Foreign Affairs, 22 Aug. 2023

The main reasons for this include the fear of retaliation by perpetrators and their supporters, who may gang up against targets, fear of losing their jobs and/or visas, and the paucity of fair and unbiased actions against perpetrators in a timely and efficient manner. —Morteza Mahmoudi, STAT, 13 Feb. 2022

Mao justified enhanced surveillance and repression of the population on the grounds that Chiang and the American imperialists were ganging up on the new Communist state. —Jane Perlez, Foreign Affairs, 28 Feb. 2023

He and my three teens all gang up on me about this. —John Hodgman, New York Times, 25 May 2023

Rome and Gary gang up on Eddie for thinking Aaron Burr was Black because of Hamilton. —Dana Rose Falcone, Peoplemag, 4 May 2023

The result: toxic friends gang up on one or more people. —Kathleen Felton, Health, 2 May 2023

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Word History

First Known Use

1910, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

gang up

verb

: to join together for an often hostile purpose

ganged up on their little brother