b : group: such as
(1) : a group of persons working together
(2) : a group of persons working to unlawful or antisocial ends; especially: a band of antisocial adolescents
2: a group of persons having informal and usually close social relations
watching TV with the gang
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
.
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 1gang
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.
gang Synonyms
Synonyms
army, band, brigade, company, crew, outfit, party, platoon, squad, team
Related Words
battalion, corps, troop; force, host, posse, stable, troupe; administration, department, help, personnel, staff
Near Antonyms
loner; individualist
3
gang
verb
Definition of gang
transitive verb
1a : 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
Origin and Etymology of gang
derivative of 2gang
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
GANG Defined for Kids
gang
noun \ ˈgaŋ \
Definition of gang for Students
1: a group of people working or going about together
2: a group of people acting together to do something illegal
a gang of thieves
3: a group of friends
I invited the gang over.
Law Dictionary
gang
noun
Legal Definition of gang
: a group of persons associating for antisocial and often criminal purposes and activities