gang

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“
What prosecutors call a gang was a "benign" group for brotherhood, Emmert said.

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Definitions (44)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (13)

  1. noun A group of criminals or hoodlums who band together for mutual protection and profit.
  2. noun A group of adolescents who band together, especially a group of delinquents.
  3. noun Informal A group of people who associate regularly on a social basis: The whole gang from the office went to a clambake.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (24)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • It used to be the gang was a rite of passage. —  Steven Levitt analyzes crack economics
  • "Almost every evening the gang is there, sometimes until 3am," said Mr Jones, 59. —  WalesOnline - Home
  • Late on Day 9 the gang was all in the hot tub area when we learned that Jason was skittish on marriage and that DeAnna was all for it, having been down the altar several times and that Matt and Yvette were going out again on another 'Hall Pass' date. —  Reality TV Magazine
  • While few would disagree that breaking up the gang is a positive development for the city, the image of six young black men's mug shots on the front page troubled some. —  field negro
  • The story of Bulger and the gang are also being picked up by a producer from previous article on The Departed criticised by Boston gang survivors —  Filmstalker
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

mob ·  band ·  horde ·  crow ·  group ·  army ·  bunch ·  party ·  leader ·  squad ·  tribe ·  police

Used in the same contextWord Family

gang:   gangs ·  ganging
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, band of men, from Old English, journey, and Old Norse -gangr, journey, group (as in thjofagangr, gang of thieves).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English gangen, gongen (preterit supplied by wende, went, or eode, ʒede, etc., present participle (rare) gangende, past participle supplied by gon, gone), from Anglo-Saxon gangan, gongan (preterit geóng, gióng, past participle ge-gangen, ge-gongen) = Old Saxon gangan = OFries. gunga = Old High German gangan, Middle High German gangen (NHG. preterit ging. past participle gegangen, associated with present gehen = English go) = Icelandic ganga = Old Swedish ganga = Old Danish gange = Gothic (Moesogothic) gaggan, go. This verb, though mixed in form and sense with the verb represented by go, and in the modern tongues to a greater or less extent displaced by it, is not, as is usually said, a fuller form of go, but is a different word: see go.
  2. Early modern English also in some senses gong, goung; from Middle English gang, gong, a going, a course, way, passage, privy (not in the sense of ‘company’ or ‘crew,’ this sense being later and of Scandinavian origin, and represented in Anglo-Saxon by genge, English ging, q. v.), from Anglo-Saxon gang, a going, way, privy, = Old Saxon gang = OFries. gong, gung = Dutch gang, a course, etc., = Old High German gang, a going, a privy, Middle High German G. gang, a going, walk, etc., = Icelandic gangr, a going, a privy, etc., also, collectively, a company or crew, = Swedish gång, a going, a time, = Danish gang, walk, gait; from the verb. Cf. ging.
 

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/gæŋ/
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