chain gang
13
8.8
- noun
- /ʧeɪn ɡæŋ/
- Archaic
:
cuadrilla de presos
- The prisoners were forced to work in the hot sun as part of their punishment on a chain gang.
- working on a chain gang
- labor on a chain gang
- return to chain gangs
I lived there early years and then my father was put on the chain gang.
- I lived there early years and then my father was put on the chain gang.
- You know, that opening sequence with the guys with the pickaxe was an actual old, I think wire recording that T-bone Burnett found of an actual chain gang singing.
- But they find, oh, this guy is freaking from a chain gang.
- That's when they get to making laws and and chain gangs and swipe units and, and all that terrible shit.
Examples
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That's the sound of the men Working on the chain gang
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I worked on a chain gang for six months building roads.
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Yeah, I spent two weeks once on a Houston chain gang.
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This place smells more like a chain gang dump than a palace.
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You're used to them regular hours on the chain gang.
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All your big-time driving around, you never seen a chain gang before?
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The chain gang was born in Georgia in 1908 and developed into the "good roads movement."
Academic text (2005) -
We used to have chain gangs that worked the highways, breaking big rocks down into little rocks.
Blog text (3) -
Food on a chain gang is scarce and not very nourishing.
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Luke is a memorable, moving story of the harsh penal punishments on a southern prison road chain gang.
Academic text (2005)
Antonyms
How Many
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'chain' (binding metal rings) and 'gang' (a group): a B1 learner can infer a group of people bound together with chains and, with minimal world knowledge, understand this refers to prisoners doing forced labor. The composition is literal and follows common cross-linguistic patterns, making the expression immediately comprehensible to learners who know both constituents.
Etymology
The noun chain gang comes from the sight of prisoners linked by metal chains who formed a gang to do hard work under guard. That's why chain gang means 'a group of prisoners chained together to perform hard work as punishment.'