| 释义 |
▪ I. gang, n.1|gæŋ|
Also (in senses 1–4 only) 1 gǫng; (in sense 8) ganne. See also gong, and for ff. with ᵹ-, i-, ȝ-, yong n.
[O.E. gang, gǫng str. masc. = OFris. gong, gung, OS. gang (Du. gang), OHG. gang (MHG., mod.G. gang), ON. gang-r (Da. gang, Sw. gång), Goth. gagg-s:—OTeut. *gaŋgo-z, noun of action related to *gaŋgan gang v.1, to go. Cf. the cognate ON. ganga wk. fem., walking, course, gǫng neut. pl., a passage, lobby (from which some of the Eng. senses may possibly be derived).]
I. Action or mode of going; way, passage.
†1. pl. Steps, goings, journeyings. (OE. only.)
c825Vesp. Psalter xvi[i]. 5 Gefreme gongas [L. gressus] mine in stiᵹum ðinum. c1000Sax. Leechd. I. 76 Gif mon on mycelre rade, oþþe on miclum gangum weorðe ᵹeteorad.
†2.
a. The power of going, ability to walk about.
Beowulf 968 Ic hine ne mihte, þa metod nolde, ganges ᵹetwæman. a1175Cott. Hom. 229 He forȝiaf blinde manne ȝeseohðe, and halten and lamen richte gang. a1225Leg. Kath. 500 Earen buten herunge, honden buten felunge, fet buten a ȝonge. a1300Cursor M. 24000 O wijttes all me wantid might, Gang, and steyuen, and tung, and sight, All failled me þat tide.
†b. Manner of going, gait or carriage. Obs.
a1300Cursor M. 28516 Lucheri has don me scrud Me⁓self, and bere my bodi prud In gang, in chere, in contenance. a1327in Rel. Ant. I. 124 Nou nabbe y nout that ȝong That speche ne that song. 1606Holland Sueton. 155 Some special one, whose gesture habitt and gang [L. incessum] hee might..imitate. 1626W. Sclater Expos. 2 Thess. (1629) iii. 9 Casually..may..children sometimes [fall] on fathers gestures, or gange of body.
†c. The act of walking. Obs.
1500–20Dunbar Poems li. 23 His gang garris all ȝour chalmeris schog.
†d. fig. Currency (of money; cf. ON. gang-silfr, current coin). Obs.
1488Sc. Acts Jas. IV (1814) II. 208/2 Þe said penny of gold to haue course & gang for xxx. þe saidis grotis.
†3.
a. A journey; sometimes with definition of extent, as a day's gang. Obs.
c950Lindisf. Gosp. Luke ii. 44 Cuomon ᵹeong dæᵹes [L. iter diei; c 975 Rushw. gonga dæᵹes]. c1020Rule St. Benet (Logeman) 86 Þa þa on gange synd asende [L. qui in itinere sunt directi]. c1200Ormin 8909 Ferrdenn towarrd Nazaræþ An daȝȝess gang till efenn. c1205Lay. 1298 Þeonne he ferden forð wel feole dawen ȝong. a1225Leg. Kath. 2502 From þeonne as ha deide, twenti dahene ȝong. a1300Cursor M. 5983 Thre dais gang, na mare ne less, We must weind in to wildirness.
†b. A travelling or resorting. Obs.
1645E. Pagitt Heresiogr. (1647) 84 By reason of a gang of silly women with child to the Image of our Lady of Steining..to which they did trot with many rich offerings.
4. a. A way, road, or passage. Now dial.
(With quot. 1882 cf. ON. gǫng neut.-pl. a passage, lobby.)
c950Lindisf. Gosp. Mark i. 3 Rehta doeð stiᵹa vel ᵹeongas his [c 975 Rushw. gongas]. 971Blickl. Hom. 109 Þa men þe bearn habban..him tæcean lifes weᵹ & rihtne gang to heofonum. 1855Robinson Whitby Gloss., Gang, a term synonymous with road, often used with a specific or descriptive prefix, as Bygang, Crossgang, Downgang, Outgang, Upgang. 1876Mid. Yorksh. Gloss., Gang, division of a mine..a continuous succession of galleries or gangs. Ibid., Gang, a path; also, a narrow way of any kind. 1882Lanc. Gloss., Gang, a lobby in a farm-house.
†b. The course of a stream. Obs.
c893K. ælfred Oros. ii. iv. §6 On þære ea gong. 1467Acta Audit. (1839) 8/1 Þe actioune..anent þe abstractioune of þe water of Northesk fra þe ald gang. Similarly in1493Acta Dom. Conc. (1839) 307.
c. A walk or pasture for cattle; also, the right of pasturing. Sc. and north. dial.
1808–80Jamieson, The haill gang, the whole extent of pasture. A fine gang, an excellent pasture. 1820Scott Monast. xviii, ‘The gang of two cows and a palfrey on our Lady's meadow’, answered his brother officer.
†5. A step or rung of a ladder. Obs.
1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 327/1 The Roofe Ladder..is usually made with broad Ganges to go into the higher storyes.
6. dial. A turn or spell at any work or exercise; see go n.1 [Cf. Du. gang (obs.), Da. gang, Sw. gång, a time, occasion.]
1879Cumbld. Gloss., Gang, turn to play. ‘It's thy gang noo.’
7. Sc. The quantity or amount usually carried at one time (cf. gait n.3 and Du. een gang water, Ger. ein gang wasser, two pailfuls).
1590in R. Chambers Domestic Ann. (1858) I. 201 note, John Borthwick, baxter, to get four boins of beer, with four gang of ale, and to furnish bread. 1808–25Jamieson s.v., A gang of peats, the quantity brought by a number of ponies at each trip (Shetland). 1827Pollok Let. in Life (1841) 357 The said servant shall, at each returning gang of milk, churn one of the churns. 1858Ramsay Remin. Ser. i. (1860) 50 They've drucken sax gang o' watter.
¶ The OE. gang, gǫng, privy, appears in later Eng. only as gong, q.v.
II. A set of things or persons.
8. a. A set of articles such as are usually taken together.
So Ger. gang; applied, e.g. to a set of cart-wheels, of horseshoes, etc.
c1340Durh. MS. Alm. Roll, v ganges de feleis. 1395–6Ibid., j gange del spaks. 1453–4MS. Hostill. Roll, Durham, iij gang et di..de felys pro rotis inde fiendis, iij gang del spekys. 1558Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees 1835) 162 Twoo gang of wayne fellowes wth heades and moldeburdes. 1580Extracts Aberdeen Reg. (1848) II. 38 The gang of..horss schone. 1670Narborough Jrnl. in Acc. Sev. Late Voy. i. (1694) 28 The main Mast must be unrig'd, and a new gang of shrouds fitted. 1674–91Ray N.C. Words 29 Gang, a row or set, v.g. of teeth or the like. It is in this sense a general word all over England. 1726G. Shelvocke Voy. round World 163, I had fitted her with a gang of oars, and upon tryal they gave way after the rate of 3 knots. 1796H. Glasse Cookery vi. 101 Boil a gang of calf's-feet to a strong jelly. 1829Marryat F. Mildmay iii, Didn't we make a gang of white hammock-cloths fore and aft. 1886Ripon Chron. 4 Sept. 8/3 Beast feet from 10d. to 1s. per gang of four.
b. esp. A set of tools or implements so arranged as to work simultaneously.
1806A. Young Agric. Essex (1813) I. 147 Mr. Rogers..uses a gang of extremely light harrows. 1874Knight Dict. Mech. I. 940/2 Gangs of plows have been arranged for work by attaching a number of plows to a bar at proper distances. 1883Harper's Mag. Nov. 824/2 A ‘gang’, as a set of saws is called..arranged at different intervals.
9. a. A company of workmen.
This and the following senses appear to be peculiar to Eng.; the ON. drauga-gangr, etc., have often been compared, but -gang-r in these compounds means not ‘gang’, but the act of going about. It would appear that in nautical use the word meaning ‘set of things’ (sense 8) was extended to the sense ‘set of persons’, ‘crew’, which had earlier been expressed by the cognate and like-sounding ging.
1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. vi. 27 Man the Boat is to put a Gang of men, which is company into her, they are commonly called the Coxswaine Gang. 1668Pepys Diary (1877) V. 159 Home to dinner with my gang of clerks. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Gang..a Society of Porters under a Regulation. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey) s.v., In Sea-Affairs, Gangs are the several Companies of Mariners belonging to a Ship [etc.]. 1775Romans Florida 182 Hogshead staves of white oak are made by what are called gangs of people; a stave making gang consists of five persons. 1812–16J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art I. 185 A gang, consisting of 6 persons, will make 20,000 bricks in the course of a week. 1863F. A. Kemble Resid. in Georgia 25 There are here a gang of coopers. 1891Law Times Rep. LXV. 577/1 He was unloading four ships, each with a gang of four men.
b. A company of slaves or prisoners.
1790Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. 1808 V. 83 A gang of Maroon slaves, suddenly broke loose from the house of bondage. 1832H. Martineau Demerara i. 7 The second gang consisted of young boys and girls. 1883Ouida Wanda I. 13 Now and then a gang of such captives would go by on foot and chained.
10. a. Any band or company of persons who go about together or act in concert (chiefly in a bad or depreciatory sense, or associated with criminal societies). transf. a social set. colloq.
1632in Crt. & Times Chas. I (1848) II. 197 Nutt the pirate..with all his gang of varlets. 1677R. Cary Palæol. Chron. ii. i. xiii. 126, I have a question to move on the behalf of the Gang of Chronographers. 1701Lond. Gaz. No. 3755/8 Supposed to be concerned with a Gang of House-breakers. 1782Wolcot (P. Pindar) Odes to R.A.'s xi. Wks. 1812 I. 38 And as a gang of thieves a bustle make With greater ease, your purse to take. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iv. I. 505 Disgusted his friends by joining what was then generally considered as a gang of crazy heretics. 1883Law Times LXXV. 130/2 The breaking up of gangs of criminals through the operation of long terms of penal servitude. 1945A. Kober Parm Me 28 The bunch is waiting at my house. I thought I'd call fa you and take you over, so that we'd meet the gang. 1955G. Freeman Liberty Man i. i. 15 All the gang would be there, and she'd be ever so proud of him.
b. to be of a gang: to belong to the same society, to have the same interests.
The resemblance between this and OF. estre a une gaaigne, to be member of a company, is probably accidental.
1669Pepys Diary 4 Mar., This company, both the ladies and all, are of a gang. 1681Trial S. Colledge 24 Here are several of them my Lord, they are all of a gang. Mr. Serj. Jefferies. Not of your gang, Mr. Colledge.
c. Gang of Four [tr. Chinese sìrénbāng, f. sì four + rén human being, person + bāng gang, clique], a nickname for four leading members of the Cultural Revolutionary Left accused after the death of Mao Tse-tung of counter-revolutionary conspiracy and Marxist revisionism, and discredited in October 1976 by the Communist Party Central Committee of the People's Republic of China.
1976Peking Rev. 29 Oct. 7/2 The Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Hua Kuo-feng smashed the scheme of the ‘gang of four’ to usurp Party and state power. 1977‘S. Leys’ Chinese Shadows (1978) ii. 88 The downfall of the ‘Gang of Four’..in late 1976 marked the end of Shanghai as a citadel of radical Maoism. 1978Times 29 Sept. (China Suppl.) p. iii/1 The country's agricultural performance since the fall of the Gang of Four has been disappointing. 1978Chinese Lit. xii. 117 This so-called evidence was fabricated by Chu Lan, a group of ‘gang of four’ writers. 1983Atlantic Monthly July 28/2 The postmortem on China's intermittent troubles..has moved its target from Mao's widow and her three Shanghai associates (Gang of Four) to the role of Mao in the Gang's ultra-leftism.
d. Gang of Three (Four, Five, etc.), a term applied to any group of people who are outspoken in their advocacy of a particular policy or who take a minority view on an issue; used esp. of a group of British Labour front-bench MPs who were openly critical of their Party, and left it to form the Social Democratic Party in 1981.
1977Economist 9 Apr. 51 The unhappy Congressmen have directed their wrath at her kitchen cabinet—the so-called gang of four, headed by Sanjay Gandhi. 1980Washington Post 12 Mar. a17 He added Assistant Secretary of State Harold Saunders, calling the officials a ‘Gang of Five’ against Israel. 1980Daily Tel. 9 Aug. 7 Mr. William Rodgers..brushed aside Mr. David Steel's appeal for Labour's so-called ‘Gang of Three’ to give up their fight against the Left of their party. 1981Nature 12 Nov. 105/1 Hoyle..[,] W. A. Fowler and the two Burbidges.., now known as the gang of four. 1983New Republic 8 Aug. 16/1 David Owen, Shirley Williams, William Rodgers, and Roy Jenkins—The Gang of Four—eventually took two dozen Labour M.P.s with them. 1983National Rev. (U.S.) 25 Nov. 1488 ‘No first use’..owes its prominence to its advocacy by ‘the gang of four’ (Bundy, Kennan, McNamara, and Gerard Smith). 1985Guardian 21 May (London ed.) 32/7 He did not reserve his characteristic gentleness for Mr Bill Rodgers, one of Mrs Williams's co-defectors in the Gang of Four. 1985Coal Outlook 23 Dec. 4/1 Gradison and two other commissioners became known as the ‘Gang of Three’ for their strong emphasis on railroad freedoms.
11. U.S. A collection or herd of animals of the same species, esp. of elk or buffalo. † Also, a pack of dogs.
1740Hist. Jamaica vii. 183 None shall hunt any Gang of Dogs within four miles of any crawl or Settlement. 1807P. Gass Jrnl. 37 This day we saw several gangs, or herds, of buffaloe on the sides of the hills. 1882Standard 10 Feb. 5/3 It might puzzle..to..tell what is the precise difference in the vocabulary of the hunter between a ‘herd’ and a ‘gang’ of elk.
III. 12. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 8 b, denoting implements worked in sets) gang-cultivator, gang-drill, gang-edger, gang-loom, gang-plough, gang-press, gang-punch, gang-saw; (senses 9, 10) gang-boss, gang-driver, gang-fight, gang-leader, gang-life, gang-man, gang-master, gang-robber, gang-robbery, gang-system, gang-war, gang-warfare, gang-work. Also gang-bang slang (orig. U.S.), an occasion on which several men have sexual intercourse one after another with one woman; hence as v. trans. and intr.; gang-boose (see quot.); gang-mill, a saw-mill in which gang-saws are used; gang-rape v. trans., to force (a woman) to have sexual intercourse with a succession of men at one time (see also quot. 1975); also as n., (an instance of) rape committed in this manner; cf. gang-bang; gang-rider (see quot.); gang-road (local), a road between a harbour and the buildings; gang-shag slang (orig. U.S.) = gang-bang above. See also gangland.
1953San Francisco News 14 Oct. 23/3 ‘Wonder gear’, it developed, is an attractive girl, in Navy lingo, and ‘*gang-bang’ is a juicy party involving wine, women and song. 1957Nation 23 Feb. 161/1 Sometimes he lapses into pages of terrifying gibberish that sound like a tape recording of a gang bang with everybody full of pod, juice and bennies all at once. 1967G. Legman Fake Revolt 30 The gang-bang ethic. 1968B. Turner Sex Trap xxi. 193 What's the next arrangement to be? A gang-bang for the whole Vice Squad? 1969Guardian 16 Aug. 7/3 A pretty 18-year-old girl..used to ‘stuff’ herself with heroin and let herself be ‘gang-banged’ all the time.
1967G. Legman Fake Revolt 28 Wife-swapping, husband-ditching, *gang⁓banging, and the rest.
1847Halliwell, *Gang-boose, the narrow passage from a cow-house to the barn. North. 1882Lanc. Gloss., Gang-boose.
1887C. B. George 40 Yrs. on Rail ix. 193, I was in charge of a construction train, being engineer, conductor and *gang-boss combined. 1923‘R. Daly’ Enchanted Isl. xii. 109 Tulagi, the chief gang⁓boss, will keep the other boys up to their work [on the copra plantation]. 1931Times Lit. Suppl. 18 June 485/1 The modern ‘gang-boss’ and his henchmen in the boot⁓legging and hijacking world in America.
1874Knight Dict. Mech. I. 940/2 *Gang-cultivator.
1884Ibid. IV. 374 *Gang-drill.
1864Kingsley Rom. & Teut. ii. (1875) 19 Left their slaves to the tender mercy of..stewards and *gang-drivers.
1879Lumberman's Gaz. 15 Oct., The roller edger, now almost wholly superseded by the *gang or parallel edger. 1880Northwest. Lumberman 24 Jan., The mill will be equipped throughout with..gang edgers.
1932H. Simpson Boomerang x. 271 A man left lying insensible in the wake of a *gang-fight. 1958New Statesman 20 Dec. 880/3 The films have conditioned us to demanding a high degree of realism in this kind of gang-fight.
1865Spectator 21 Jan. 64 It is not open to him to make an outsider or new comer *gangleader out of his turn.
1949M. Mead Male & Female xv. 309 This asocial *gang-life of boys provides a basis for the adult criminal world in America.
1876L. P. Brockett Silk-Industry xvii. 99 Ribbons are usually woven on *gang-looms.
1867J. E. White in E. R. Pike Human Doc. Vict. Golden Age (1967) 218 The *gangman acts as foreman or overlooker. 1896Current Hist. (Buffalo, N.Y.) VI. 937 The following day four gang-men were killed near Dalijal. 1928Daily Express 10 Oct. 6 We can hide you away where all the gangmen in London won't find you. 1955E. Waugh Officers & Gentlemen 153 The gangmen of the departments closed in for the kill. 1964A. Swinson Six Minutes to Sunset ii. 42 At midnight the railway between Chheharta and Khasa was torn up, the job being done expertly with gangmen's tools.
1884Rogers 6 Cent. Work & Wages II. 511 His young children..taken from him and put under the care of a *gangmaster. 1893Westm. Gaz. 1 Feb. 2/1 His place is..between the official leaders of his party and the mass of those whose appointed generals they are, and not their gang-masters.
1879Lumberman's Gaz. 15 Oct., David Fox of Bay City..put in the first *gang-mill upon the Saginaw river.
1856Olmsted Slave States 9, I sow wheat and guano together, and plow them in with a *gang-plow. 1894Times (weekly ed.) 2 Feb. 89/3 A man with two yoke of oxen and a gang-plough breaks up a quarter section (160 acres) during five spring and summer months.
1884Knight Dict. Mech. IV. 375 *Gang-press.
1874Ibid. I. 941/2 *Gang-punch.
1969H. Waugh Young Prey iv. 67 She's the kind of DOA I'd expect to find down in Homicide South—some runaway, some would-be hippie who got herself *gang-raped. 1975Business Week 17 Mar. 10/1 Who else could fit embezzlement, stock fraud,..and homosexual gang rape into a book on commercial banking? 1977Daily Mirror 16 Mar. 11/6 Six soldiers who plotted a gang rape chose a 17-year-old village girl as their victim. 1983P. Kurth Anastasia (1985) i. 14 Stories later spread in monarchist circles of their being tied naked to chairs and gang-raped by crazed Bolsheviks. 1984Times Lit. Suppl. 19 Oct. 1183/4 She had just suffered..‘gang-rape’ at the hands of a quartet of avant-garde musicians.
1889Century Dict., *Gang-rider, one who rides on mine-cars or trams.
1840Evid. Hull Docks Comm. 52 There is no quay room except the *gang road along there.
1895Sir W. Hunter Old Missionary iv. 107 Two fraternities of *gang-robbers.
1831Edin. Rev. LIII. 450 Those who have merely heard or read what *gang-robbery is. 1887Spectator 19 Mar. 383/2 That earliest, safest, and most profitable of all forms of crime,—violent gang-robbery.
1873J. Richards Wood-working Factories 127 To manufacture thin boards cheaply, the *gang saw must be used. 1877Lumberman's Gaz. 8 Dec. 362 The ‘gang-saw’, a congregation of saws hung together in a frame or sash.
1927F. M. Thrasher Gang xiii. 237 The *gang shag includes boys from sixteen to twenty-two years of age. It is a party carried on with one woman by from fifteen to thirty boys from one gang or club. A mattress in the alley usually suffices for this purpose.
1891Pall Mall G. 12 Dec. 7/1 They are the outcome of division of labour; they are largely the result of the ‘*gang system’.
1932Amer. Speech VII. 253 A cycle of *gang war pictures. 1959Wyndham Lewis Let. 12 Dec. (1963) 514 The people were no more troubled than Chicagoans are by gang-wars.
1934Webster, *Gang warfare. 1962John o'London's 8 Mar. 235/1 Gang-warfare and teenage problems.
1896Westm. Gaz. 30 Sept. 5/1 Almost more important than the question of wages is the question of the organisation of *gang work.
Add:[III.] [12.] (Sense 8 b) gang-mower.
1922Golfing June 72 (Advt.), Ransomes' special golf mowers..motor, horse and pony mowers specially designed for golf courses, including..The Pioneer *Gang Mower. 1984Which? Mar. 104/2 For very large lawns..a ride-on mower or a gang mower towed behind a small tractor might be worth considering.
▪ II. gang, n.2 Fishing.|gæŋ|
? = ganging vbl. n.3
1883[see ganging vbl. n.3].
▪ III. gang, v.1 Obs. exc. Sc. and dial.
Forms: α. 1 gongan, Northumb. ᵹeonga, 3 ȝeonge, ȝonge, gonge, 4 gong. β. 1 gangan, 3 gangen (Orm. ganngenn), 4 gange (Sc. pple. ganand), 3– gang (9 Sc. and dial. gan, geyng).
[Common Teutonic: OE. gangan, gǫngan = OFris. gunga, OS. gangan (MDu. gangen), OHG. gangan (MHG. gangen), ON. ganga (Sw. gånga, Da. gange obs.), Goth. gaggan:—OTeut. *gaŋgan. In ME. no traces remain of the pa. tense (OE. ᵹeong, ᵹieng, gang, OFris. geng, ging, OS. geng, OHG. giang, gieng, ON. gekk:—OTeut. *gegaŋg-) or of the pa. pple. (OE. ᵹegangen, etc.). The use of the verb is also greatly restricted in favour of go, OE. gán, which finally supplanted gang exc. in the northern dialects. The same tendency appears in most of the cognate languages; thus Du. gaan (pa. tense ging, pa. pple. gegaan), G. gehen (ging, gegangen), Sw. gå (gick, gått), Da. gaa (gik, gaaet), but Icel. ganga (rarely gá from Da.). Gang, however, survives to some extent in various G. dialects and in Fris. The OTeut. gaŋgan is prob. related to Lith. žengiù I stride, go, Skr. jáṅghā the lower part of the leg, from the root *ghoŋgh-, *gheŋgh-. For the relation between this and go, see the latter.
In Sc. gang is now used chiefly in the inf. and pres. tense, while go furnishes the pa. tense (gaed) and the pa. pple.]
1. intr. To walk, go. (Chiefly lit.)
α Beowulf 711 Þa com of more..Grendel gongan. c950Lindisf. Gosp. Mark xiv. 42 Arisað gæ we vel wutun ᵹeonga. c1205Lay. 27764 Walwain gon ȝeonge ȝeond þat wæl muchele. c1300Havelok 843 Betere is þat þu henne gonge, Þan þu here dwelle longe. c1340Cursor M. 13267 (Trin.) Ihesu þouȝt hit was ful longe Wiþouten felowshipe to gonge.
β Beowulf 314 Þæt hie him to mihton ᵹegnum gangan. 971Blickl. Hom. 123 Þu scealt on eorþan gangan. c1200Ormin 12855 He þær þe Laferrd Crist Sahh ganngenn & nohht stanndenn. c1300Havelok 370 Til þat he kouþen speken wit tunge, Speken and gangen, on horse riden. 1340Hampole Pr. Cons. 1396 By þis way byhoves us al gang, Bot be we war we ga noght wrang. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xiv. 161 And ȝit is wynter for hem worse..for wete-shodde thei gange. c1460Towneley Myst. vi. 87 Deus. The day spryngis; now lett me go. Iacob. Nay, nay, I will not so, Bot thou blys me or thou gang. 1549Compl. Scotl. v. 34 Quhen ve ar tirit to gang on oure feit, ve ar solist to seik horse to ryde. 1638Penit. Conf. v. (1657) 77 But you whose sins are of a deeper grain..gang ye on pilgrimage to Rome. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull iii. iii, ‘I do not care for your flaunting beaus, that gang with their breasts open.’ 1786Burns Twa Dogs 12 Some place far abroad, Where sailors gang to fish for Cod. 1866G. Chatt Poems 87 The bairns was put to wark as seun as they could gan. 1886Hall Caine Son of Hagar i. iv, I must gang away at once.
b. quasi-trans. (Cf. go.)
c1375Sc. Leg. Saints, Jacobus minor 803 Þane tytus bad hyme gange his way. c1470Henry Wallace i. 250 Thai left him swa, and furth thar gait can gang. 1508Dunbar Poems v. 29 Out of hevin the hie gait cought (B. cowth) the wif gang. 1637B. Jonson Sad Sheph. ii. i, False gelden, gang thy gait. 1822Scott Pirate v, Put up your pipes, and gang your gait. 1893Northumbld. Gloss. s.v., ‘Gan yor aan gait’, go your own way.
c. = go in transferred or fig. senses. rare.
1595Extracts Aberdeen Reg. (1848) II. 120 To reull the saidis tua knockis, and to cause thame gang and strik the houris richtlie bayth nicht and day. 1603Owen Pembrokesh. (1891) 269 Fowlinge also claimeth a place with the pleasures of this Countrey..yt shall gang amonge them and truelye not vnworthylye. 1826J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 282 Ane o' the bawbees o' an obsolete sort, that wadna gang nowadays.
2. In Phrases. (Cf. go.)
a1300Cursor M. 10898 Sco had conceiued of hir husband, Sex monet nu wit child gangand. 1603Philotus xxvii, Ȝe sall weir..Ȝour Myssell quhen ȝe gang to gait. 1768Ross Helenore ii. 74 She says, my heart is like to gang awa', An' I maun e'en sit down, or else I'll fa'. Ibid. 85 For it ungangs me fair, gin at the last To gang together binna found the best. 1785Burns To a Mouse, The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft a-gley. 1893Northumbld. Gloss. s.v., ‘To gan wi'’ is to make away with.
3. In phraseological Combs. employed substantively or attributively, as the gang-bye, the go-by, the action of passing one without notice; gang-there-out, homeless, vagabond (cf. run-there-out).
1815Scott Guy M. i, I darena for my life open the door to ony of your gang-there-out sort o' bodies. 1818― Rob Roy xxiii, We gang-there-out Hieland bodies are an un⁓chancy generation. ― Br. Lamm. xxv, Mercy on me that I suld live in my auld days to gie the gang-bye to the very writer.
▪ IV. gang, v.2|gæŋ|
[f. gang n.1 9.]
1. a. trans. To arrange in a gang; also to gang out: to arrange in companies.
1856Olmsted Slave States 234 They were worked, white and black slaves, criminal and bonded servants, all ganged together. 1885St. James's Gaz. 18 July 8/1 After the Penjdeh incident about two thousand men were ganged out to strengthen the works.
b. To arrange (implements or instruments) in gangs (gang n.1 8 b). Hence ganged ppl. a.
1900Yearbk. U.S. Dept. Agric. 540 The plows are usually ganged, two to one frame. 1938Nature 3 Sept. 446/1 The use of a motor driving the main ganged variable condenser. 1942Electronic Engin. XV. 9 The tuning..is carried out by..variometers ganged together and controlled by a single knob. 1964Economist 6 June 1149/2 Adaptation..made it feasible for disc-plows to be ‘ganged’ so that several could be pulled at once. 1971Hi-Fi Sound Feb. 41/2 (Advt.), Rotary knob ganged controls for tone, balance and volume.
2. a. intr. to gang in: to come in a gang. Also, to go in company with.
1891Miss Willard in Voice (N.Y.) 12 Nov., The dozen or fifteen barefooted urchins who in the later summer season ganged in from the river side and prairie. 1928W. A. White Masks in Pageant 348 He was frail [in his boyhood] and never ganged with his fellows.
b. to gang up (with, on): to form a gang or combine (with, against). colloq. (orig. U.S.).
1925T. A. Boyd Points of Honor 50 Then I set out to kick hell out of 'im. I'd a done it too if they hadn't a ganged up on me. 1940Nature 6 July 36/2 The old folks..and the youngsters..are ‘ganging up’ on the half of the population that does the work. 1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §343/6 Affiliate or associate with,..gang up with. 1942D. Powell Time to be Born (1943) xiv. 332 Things must have gone wrong with her!.. Maybe he's got people to gang up against her. 1944Hutchinson's Pict. Hist. War 27 Oct. 1943—11 Apr. 1944 365 A change in U-boat tactics was essential if they were to gang-up on and strike at our convoys. 1946‘P. Quentin’ Puzzle for Fiends viii. 64 Thought he was Jesus Christ..with a lot of Satans ganging up on him. 1951Ann. Reg. 1950 47 A fear that Germany and France might ‘gang-up’ in Europe without Britain. 1959‘J. Byrom’ Take Only as Directed i. 16 He'll get David to gang up with him and stop me sailing. |