'Press gang' definitions:
Definition of 'press gang'
(from WordNet)
noun
A detachment empowered to force civilians to serve in the army or navy
Definition of 'Press gang'
From: GCIDE
- Press \Press\, n. [For prest, confused with press.] A commission to force men into public service, particularly into the navy. [1913 Webster]
- I have misused the king's press. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
- Press gang, or Pressgang, a detachment of seamen under the command of an officer empowered to force men into the naval service. See Impress gang, under Impress.
- Press money, money paid to a man enlisted into public service. See Prest money, under Prest, a. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'press gang'
From: GCIDE
- Impress \Im"press\, n.; pl. Impresses.
- 1. The act of impressing or making. [1913 Webster]
- 2. A mark made by pressure; an indentation; imprint; the image or figure of anything, formed by pressure or as if by pressure; result produced by pressure or influence. [1913 Webster]
- The impresses of the insides of these shells. --Woodward. [1913 Webster]
- This weak impress of love is as a figure Trenched in ice. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
- 3. Characteristic; mark of distinction; stamp. --South. [1913 Webster]
- 4. A device. See Impresa. --Cussans. [1913 Webster]
- To describe . . . emblazoned shields, Impresses quaint. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
- 5. [See Imprest, Press to force into service.] The act of impressing, or taking by force for the public service; compulsion to serve; also, that which is impressed. [1913 Webster]
- Why such impress of shipwrights? --Shak. [1913 Webster]
- Impress gang, a party of men, with an officer, employed to impress seamen for ships of war; a press gang.
- Impress money, a sum of money paid, immediately upon their entering service, to men who have been impressed. [1913 Webster]