Gank

Gank is an English slang word or colloquialism that is used to mean steal. A colloquialism is a word or phrase that has arisen from English but is not considered formal or grammatical. Colloquial words or phrases are used very frequently in spoken English. Slang is also very informal and is used by a select group of people. The word gank is a very new term in English that arose in the 1980s from drug abuse slang but also in sports jargon. Its origin is not known but it likely comes from the word gang,

Meaning of Gank (verb)

1. To steal

2. To rob, mug, or rip off

3. To defraud, swindle or con

4. In gaming slang, during massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), to kill a weaker (lower level) player or ‘newbie’ by ambush or other means that they are unable to defend against, especially by ‘ganging up’ with multiple players, although this is not required to use the word (internet, gaming lingo).

5. To con someone by selling them fake drugs.

6. To kill (an offshoot from the gaming community)

Sentence Examples

“The first time I played I immediately got ganked.”

“I don’t want to play that game anymore. There are a bunch of jerks ganking newbies over and over.”

“Some dude ganked my phone when I left it on the car for a second.”

“I’ll tell you what, Mr. Programme-Director Man, you put our goddamn tape on the air. It’s gonna get some airplay or my man’s gonna gank you here and now!” … “Well, let’s not go ganking anyone.” — Airheads (1994)

“Yo, what’s out there? A weapon? You trying to gank me, fool?” — John Dies at the End (2013)

“…And the way Na’Vi played, they really gambled basically. Dendi’s really been ganked, just shut down. And not a single kill to his name as well.” —  Free to Play (2014)

“Think about what we know, huh? Pulling souls from hell, curing demons, hell, ganking a Hellhound! — Supernatural: Sacrifice (2013)

“Um, we ran into the Vigilante, and, um, he ganked our weapons.” — Arrow: Crucible (2013)

Origin

Gank is still evolving but its original meaning seems to have been the fifth meaning, above, to con someone by selling them fake drugs. According to OED, the earliest known use of gank was in 1987, in a rap song called Dope Man by N.W.A. with the meaning described. 1“Gank, V.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, March 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1126035267.

By 1990, gank had evolved to mean ‘steal’ in general. This meaning was used in a song by King Tee called Ruff Rhyme (Back Again).

The gaming community picked up the term during the late 1990s. 2Meaning of Gank, Dictionary.com Slang Dictionary, December 27, 2018 https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/gank/

More English Colloquialisms