Found 2 items, similar to press gang.
English → English (WordNet) Definition: press gang press gang n : a detachment empowered to force civilians to serve in the army or navy
English → English (gcide) Definition: press gang Impress \Im"press\, n.; pl. Impresses. 1. The act of impressing or making. [1913 Webster] 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. [1913 Webster] The impresses of the insides of these shells. --Woodward. [1913 Webster] This weak impress of love is as a figure Trenched in ice. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 3. Characteristic; mark of distinction; stamp. --South. [1913 Webster] 4. A device. See Impresa. --Cussans. [1913 Webster] To describe . . . emblazoned shields, Impresses quaint. --Milton. [1913 Webster] 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. [1913 Webster] Why such impress of shipwrights? --Shak. [1913 Webster] 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. [1913 Webster]