What is "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.

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

Press gang may refer to:

• Impressment, the practice of pressing men into military service

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.