chain gang
noun
plural chain gangs
: a group of people (such as convicts) chained together especially as an outside working party
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web Sloppy day for the chain gang, which was slow to change the down and distance markers, prompting a couple of play delays. 
Jim Mcbride, BostonGlobe.com, 15 Aug. 2022 In a Season 4 teaser released in 2020, Hopper is alive, smoking a cigarette in a Russian chain gang. Helena Andrews-dyer, Washington Post, 27 May 2022 Rustin, a prominent civil rights leader, spent 22 days working on a prison chain gang in Roxboro, North Carolina. Meron Moges-gerbi, CNN, 21 June 2022 Rembert was born in Georgia, worked in cotton fields as a child, spent time in jail — including for civil-rights protests against Jim Crow segregation laws — served on a chain gang and survived a lynching attempt. Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 11 May 2022 Last season, the romantic tension between her character and surly local cop Jim Hopper (David Harbour) came to a head, but this season finds him in a frigid Russian prison, serving on a chain gang. Hattie Lindert, PEOPLE.com, 12 Apr. 2022 After being convicted for trespassing, nine of the men chose 30 days of hard labor on a chain gang instead of paying the $100 bail bond. Claire Thornton, USA TODAY, 3 Nov. 2021 All day with the chain gang for 30 days, feed and clothe us and everything. Claire Thornton, USA TODAY, 3 Nov. 2021 There were probably more good guys on the chain gang than bad. Winfred Rembert, The New Yorker, 3 May 2021 See More
Jim Mcbride, BostonGlobe.com, 15 Aug. 2022 In a Season 4 teaser released in 2020, Hopper is alive, smoking a cigarette in a Russian chain gang. Helena Andrews-dyer, Washington Post, 27 May 2022 Rustin, a prominent civil rights leader, spent 22 days working on a prison chain gang in Roxboro, North Carolina. Meron Moges-gerbi, CNN, 21 June 2022 Rembert was born in Georgia, worked in cotton fields as a child, spent time in jail — including for civil-rights protests against Jim Crow segregation laws — served on a chain gang and survived a lynching attempt. Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 11 May 2022 Last season, the romantic tension between her character and surly local cop Jim Hopper (David Harbour) came to a head, but this season finds him in a frigid Russian prison, serving on a chain gang. Hattie Lindert, PEOPLE.com, 12 Apr. 2022 After being convicted for trespassing, nine of the men chose 30 days of hard labor on a chain gang instead of paying the $100 bail bond. Claire Thornton, USA TODAY, 3 Nov. 2021 All day with the chain gang for 30 days, feed and clothe us and everything. Claire Thornton, USA TODAY, 3 Nov. 2021 There were probably more good guys on the chain gang than bad. Winfred Rembert, The New Yorker, 3 May 2021 See More Word History
First Known Use
1813, in the meaning defined above
Legal Definition
chain gang
noun
: a group of convicts chained together especially to work outside a prison