Definition of "gang"

(Colin alone) Ah, Colin, thou’rt a prodigal; a thriftless loon thou’st been, that cou’d na’ keep a little pelf to thysall when thou had’st got it; now thou may’st gang in this poor geer to thy live's end, and worse too for aught I can tell; ’faith, mon, ’twas a smeart little bysack of money thou hadst scrap’d together, an the best part of it had na’ being last amongst thy kinsfolk, in the Isles of Skey and Mull; muckle gude may it do the weams of them that ha’ it! There was Jamie MacGregor and Sawney MacNab, and the twa braw lads of Kinruddin, with old Charley MacDougall, my mother's first husband's second cousin: by my sol I cou’d na’ see such near relations, and gentlemen of sich auncient families gang upon bare feet, while I rode a horseback: I had been na’ true Scot, an I cou’d na’ ge’en a countryman a gude last upon occasion (as he is going out, Miss Aubrey enters.)

1772, Richard Cumberland, The Fashionable Lover. A Comedy., act III

"And am I to meet my Mary at Moffat? Come away, little, dear, welcome body, thou blessed of heaven, come away, and taste of an auld shepherd's best cheer, and I'll gang foot for foot with you to Moffat, and my auld wife shall gang foot for foot with us too. I tell you, little, blessed, and welcome crile, come along with me."

1828, James Hogg, Mary Burnet

In unploughed Maine he sought the lumberers’ gang / Where from a hundred lakes young rivers sprang

1840, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Woodnotes I.3

That week was also called the Gang Week, from the Saxon ganger, to go; and the Rogation days were termed the Gang Days.

1869, “Papa André”, in Once a Week, page 418/1

Neither Marshall nor Bouterwek makes clear the connection existing between the Gang-days and the Major and Minor Litanies.

1895, Frederick Tupper Jr., Anglo-Saxon Dæg-Mæl, Modern Language Association of America, page 229

Þaða he to gange com.

c. 1000, Aelfric, Homilies, Vol. I, page 290

Volume controls may be ganged to mode switches to provide maximum output […]

1981, Human Engineering Design Criteria for Military Systems, United States. Department of Defense, page 58

When cutting the back cleats with the T-guide, first gang them together so all the marks on one side align.

1999 May, Rosario Capotosto, “Building a Bookcase”, in Popular Mechanics

The chairs are usually ganged together using a variety of ganging or locking mechanisms to create rows and prevent the chairs from moving out of position.

2011, Corky Binggeli, Interior Graphic Standards: Student Edition, page 317

He still liked the idea of them all ganging her [...]

1970, Richard Allen, Skinhead, New Eng. Lib., page 104; republished as Skinhead, Dean Street Press, 2015

[…] I’ve learned over the years that there's a thin line to tread to avoid fights or getting “ganged” when rejecting the sexual overtures of incarcerated women.

1998, Velmarine Oliphant Szabo, Velmarine's Diary (as cited in Alarid, 2000)