Gang

[gang] /gæŋ/

noun
1.
a group or band:
A gang of boys gathered around the winning pitcher.
2.
a group of youngsters or adolescents who associate closely, often exclusively, for social reasons, especially such a group engaging in delinquent behavior.
3.
a group of people with compatible tastes or mutual interests who gather together for social reasons:
I’m throwing a party for the gang I bowl with.
4.
a group of persons working together; squad; shift:
a gang of laborers.
5.
a group of persons associated for some criminal or other antisocial purpose:
a gang of thieves.
6.
a set of tools, electronic components or circuits, oars, etc., arranged to work together or simultaneously.
7.
a group of identical or related items.
verb (used with object)
8.
to arrange in groups or sets; form into a gang:
to gang illustrations for more economical printing on one sheet.
9.
to attack in a gang.
verb (used without object)
10.
to form or act as a gang:
Cutthroats who gang together hang together.
Verb phrases
11.
gang up on, Informal. (of a number of persons) to unite in opposition to (a person); combine against:
The bigger boys ganged up on the smaller ones in the schoolyard.
[gang] /gæŋ/
verb (used without object), Chiefly Scot. and North England.
1.
to walk or go.
/ɡæŋ/
noun
1.
a group of people who associate together or act as an organized body, esp for criminal or illegal purposes
2.
an organized group of workmen
3.
a herd of buffaloes or elks or a pack of wild dogs
4.
(NZ) a group of shearers who travel to different shearing sheds, shearing, classing, and baling wool
5.

verb
6.
to form into, become part of, or act as a gang
7.
(transitive) (electronics) to mount (two or more components, such as variable capacitors) on the same shaft, permitting adjustment by a single control
/ɡæŋ/
verb
1.
(Scot) to go
/ɡæŋ/
noun
1.
a variant spelling of gangue
n.

from Old English gang “a going, journey, way, passage,” and Old Norse gangr “a group of men, a set,” both from Proto-Germanic *gangaz (cf. Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Danish, Dutch, Old High German, German gang, Old Norse gangr, Gothic gagg “act of going”), from PIE root *ghengh- “to step” (cf. Sanskrit jangha “shank,” Avestan zanga- “ankle,” Lithuanian zengiu “I stride”). Thus not considered to be related to go.

The sense evolution is probably via meaning “a set of articles that usually are taken together in going” (mid-14c.), especially a set of tools used on the same job. By 1620s this had been extended in nautical speech to mean “a company of workmen,” and by 1630s the word was being used, with disapproving overtones, for “any band of persons traveling together.” Gangway preserves the original sense of the word, as does gangplank.
v.

1856, from gang (n.). Related: Ganged; ganging. To gang up (on) is first attested 1919.

Related Terms

black gang
In addition to the idiom beginning with gang