GANG


Meaning of GANG in English

I. ˈgaŋ, ˈgaiŋ noun

( -s )

Usage: often attributive

Etymology: Middle English, from Old English; akin to Old High German gang act of going, Old Norse gangr act of going, Gothic gang street, Greek kochōnē perineum, Sanskrit jaṅghā shank

1. : the act, manner, or means of going : passage , course , journey ; also : gait

2.

a. dialect chiefly Britain

(1) : passage , way , road , lane

(2) : a pasturage for cattle

b. chiefly Scotland : journey ; especially : one undertaken to perform an errand

c. chiefly Scotland : the amount (as of wood, water, or peat) that can be carried at one time or in one trip

3.

a.

(1) : a set or full complement of articles : outfit

a gang of oars

(2) : a combination of similar implements or other items arranged so as to act together to save time or labor

a gang of saws

or to produce in one operation or as one unit

a gang of printing plates printing several jobs on a single sheet

b. : a number of individuals making up a group: as

(1) : a group of persons working under the same direction or at the same task

migrants … laboring in gangs in the woods, mines, and fields — American Guide Series: Washington

gangs of expert bottomers — B.H.Sprague

(2) : a company of criminals

a gang of desperate banditti — Tobias Smollett

squealed on the other members of the gang

(3) : an elementary and close-knit social group of spontaneous origin ; especially : such a unit composed of antisocial adolescents

teenage gangs

(4) : a group of persons acting in accord who are believed to engage in improper acts or to be influenced by self-seeking, corrupt, or unworthy motives

made captive by the gang which seized power — A.H.Sulzberger

denounced the musical gang then in power — Virgil Thomson

a political gang … dragged out the racial issue to divert attention from itself — Oscar Handlin

(5) : a group of congenial persons having close and informal social relations : a group of persons drawn together by a community of tastes, interests, or activity

one of a gang that call one another great — O.W.Holmes †1935

invite the gang plus some pretty girls — Dorothy Bradbury

where's the gang going tonight

the gang in the office

(6) : a flock or herd of animals

a gang of little chickens — J.H.Stuart

a gang of elk

II. verb

( -ed/-ing/-s )

transitive verb

1. : to attack (a person) as a gang

young hoodlums … always gang you — W.R.Burnett

try to gang him and take it away from him — Springfield (Massachusetts) Union

2.

a. : to assemble or operate (mechanical or electronic parts) simultaneously as a group

circuits ganged together by gears

b. : to arrange in or produce as a gang (as type pages or printed sheets) — often used with up

intransitive verb

: to form a group or gang : keep company : go , travel

empty-headed, idle-handed widows who gang together — Henry Miller

gangs with those kids on the next block

— often used with up

the boys would gang up around the corner drugstore

III. intransitive verb

Etymology: Middle English gangen to go, walk, from Old English gangan; akin to Old High German gangan to go, Old Norse ganga, Gothic gaggan to go, Old English gang act of going

Scotland : go

IV.

variant of gangue

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.