Word.ws English Dictionary

gank

/ˈɡæŋk/US/ˈɡeɪ̯ŋk/

gank verb: to swindle.

Verb (1)

gank (third-person singular simple present ganks, present participle ganking, simple past and past participle ganked)

  1. (slang, transitive) To swindle.
    • Then I met this girl she tried to gank me / So I smacked her in the booty with M.C. Plank Bee1989, “Car Thief”, in Paul's Boutique, performed by Beastie Boys
    • Jay was ganked (mugged) for $55 by some Noongar boys when Brad told them he had a lot of money on him.2001, Delphine Jamet, Street Kid in the City
  2. (slang, transitive) To steal.
    • “I ganked these from the Major's house last night,” I explained, reaching into the backpack to withdraw the two books.2002, A. K. Stanfield, Zen Smoking: A Mock Epic with Stock Characters, page 261
    • It was one of the syringes Splinter ganked from the hospital the other day when he was in there for chest pains.2006, N. Frank Daniels, Futureproof, page 206

Verb (2)

gank (third-person singular simple present ganks, present participle ganking, simple past and past participle ganked)

  1. (Internet, slang, transitive) To kill much weaker players in an online video game in such a way that they cannot defend themselves.
    • Our group totally ganked this guy.

Examples of gank in a sentence

  • Just as Eazy had robbed Lonzo at Crew Cut Records, Suge and Dre had now ganked Eazy.2004, Mike Sager, Scary Monsters and Super Freaks: Stories of Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll and Murder, page 135:
  • And in the old days, you know, if you ganked a drug dealer, they would beat you senseless.2004, U.S. Congress Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Combating Gang Violence in America, page 28:

Forms of gank

third-person singular presentganks
present participleganking
past participleganked
pastganked

Origin of gank

1980s, of uncertain origin; possibly imitative or a derivation from gangster.

Blend of gan(g) + k(ill).

Words formed from gank

Words that rhyme with gank

34 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about gank

What does gank mean?
Gank means to swindle.
How do you use gank in a sentence?
Just as Eazy had robbed Lonzo at Crew Cut Records, Suge and Dre had now ganked Eazy.
What part of speech is gank?
Gank is a verb.
How do you pronounce gank?
Gank is pronounced /ˈɡæŋk/.
What is the past tense of gank?
The past tense of gank is ganked.

Words near gank in the dictionary

  1. ganjes
  2. Ganjingzi
  3. ganjira
  4. ganjiras
  5. ganjs
  6. gank
  7. gankable
  8. ganked
  9. ganker
  10. gankers
  11. ganking

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gank (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-gank.wav.

Cite this entry: “gank.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gank. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.