gang fight
4
5.1
- noun
- /ɡæŋ faɪt/
:
pelea de pandillas
- The police responded quickly when they heard reports of a gang fight in the alley behind the school.
Freaking gang fight breaks out right in front of me.
- Freaking gang fight breaks out right in front of me.
- And I had like all these scenes that I want to do like a big brawl, like a gang fight, which didn't really work out.
Examples
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- My friend was wounded in a gang fight.
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Attention, all units, there is a gang fight at Pier 4.
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You know that gang fight that happened yesterday?
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Make it look like a gang fight.
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They had been in a gang fight in a drug deal gone bad.
Blog text (13) -
Just ahead of us was some kind of gang fight, a shouting mob trying to enter an old greenish building that looked like a warehouse.
Fiction book (1999) -
We witnessed stabbings, serious gang fights, and other scary situations.
Blog text (21) -
No bandannas were allowed at St. Jude's, no careless hand signals, nothing to spark gang fights.
Fiction book (1990) -
Law and order are greatly compromised, as terrorism has escalated from past years' gang fights, street crimes, and arson.
Academic text (1999) -
January 31: A gang fight involving a hundred youths, some armed with knives, takes place in the Boissy-Saint-Léger PER commuter train station, apparently connected to a hip-hop concert.
Academic text (2011)
Synonyms
294
4.5
A situation when people or groups meet in direct conflict, often angrily
105
3.2
A short conflict between people or groups
60
4.6
A noisy, violent fight among a group in a public place
50
6.5
A noisy fight involving several people
22
6.4
A brief unplanned fight between small groups, often during a larger conflict
12
8.3
A violent fight between rival groups of young people
1
7.0
A noisy fight involving many people in one place
Antonyms
How Violent
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a violent confrontation between rival groups' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'gang' (a group engaged in illegal activities) with 'fight' (a physical clash). This noun+noun composition follows common, cross-linguistic compositional patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Gang fight shows a clear picture: one group against another in a street fight, because gang means a group and fight means a physical battle. That's why it means a 'violent physical confrontation between rival groups'.