chain gang

English

Alternative forms

• chain-gang

Noun

chain gang (plural chain gangs)

1. A group of convicts chained together to work outside the confines of a prison.
   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 205:

     My idea was to let that chain-gang get out of sight before I climbed the hill.

   • 1983 December 24, David Leon Barth, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 23, page 20:

     I am presently donating my time and energies unwillingly to the Florida Dept. of 'Corrections', a modern institution on the surface, but a southern style chain-gang below.

2. (cycling) A group of cyclists riding in a close-knit formation akin to a road race, normally for the purposes of training.

Derived terms

• chain-ganger
• chain-ganging

 

Translations

a group of convicts chained together

• Finnish: ryhmä kahlevankeja

a group of cyclists riding in a close-knit formation

• Finnish: ryhmäajo

Anagrams

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