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press gang
The Collaborative International Dictionary
press gang

Impress \Im"press\, n.; pl. Impresses.

  1. The act of impressing or making.

  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.

    The impresses of the insides of these shells.
    --Woodward.

    This weak impress of love is as a figure Trenched in ice.
    --Shak.

  3. Characteristic; mark of distinction; stamp.
    --South.

  4. A device. See Impresa.
    --Cussans.

    To describe . . . emblazoned shields, Impresses quaint.
    --Milton.

  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.

    Why such impress of shipwrights?
    --Shak.

    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.

WordNet
press gang

n. a detachment empowered to force civilians to serve in the army or navy

Wikipedia
Press gang

Press gang may refer to:

  • Impressment, the practice of pressing men into military service
Press Gang (comics)

The Press Gang are a group of fictional characters in the Marvel Comics universe, who first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #235 (October 1988), and were created by Chris Claremont.