Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
alt. A body of men employed to force others into military or naval service. n. A body of men employed to force others into military or naval service. vb. 1 To force men into military or naval service. 2 To coerce somebody into doing something that they are reluctant to do.
Usage examples of "press-gang".
Arthur, that a cutter with a press-gang on board is at anchor off Sennen Cove.
In what little information he gave out, Tanner learned that Angevine had been press-ganged ten years ago.
Damn Dutchies always have a few English sailors aboard hiding out from the press-gang under a foreign flag.
The army would have dearly liked a press-gang system like the navy, but lacking it, they depended on the wiles of their recruiters and on the depths of their purse.
They’re almost all city-born, for a start: it’s a rare press-ganged who’s given a letter of pass.
The city-born were hardy, but every batch of press-ganged was afflicted with fevers and murrains on its first arrival, and several of their number inevitably died.
They might let their press-ganged keep this or that volume, or would trade some of the rarest volumes they snatched.
It was the recently press-ganged who were most vociferous about that, Dry Fallers pointed out—superstitious outsiders who had not yet learned Armadan ways.
She was enthusiastic about the project and the island, then reined herself quickly in, as if a tussle was going on within her between an unfurling desire and a sulky, curmudgeonly, press-ganged response.
There were now many times more press-ganged aboard than Garwater or any other riding had had to take in at one time before.
The administrative employees who had shown up were immediately press-ganged by the various corps staff to handle the massive management headache involved in creating the Richmond Defense from scratch in the midst of a "murthering great battle.
A hundred or so was the limit for a single ship, and it also served to discourage the press-ganged sailors from deserting.
Central Rail stevedore-slaves, dockworkers, and press-ganged clerks lay about in various stages of collapse.
Two thousand troopers and as many press-ganged Colonial refugees dug steadily, hauling the dirt from the growing ditch upslope in baskets, buckets, helmets, and cloth slings improvised from coats.
Every maritime nation has lost vessels to war, press-ganging, desertion.