Definition of "ganging"

The object of the snood swivels, in which the gangings are so easily adjustable, is to save time in removing the fish and in baiting the hooks.

1887, George Brown Goode, The fisheries and fishery industries of the United States

The full length of each tub was just under half a mile and had a total of 270 gangings and hooks if it was a nine-foot rig. Each line was coiled into a wooden barrel three feet in diameter and thirty inches high.

2011, Brenda Bishop Booma, Hugh Peabody Bishop, Marblehead's First Harbor

Some never-atrophying instinct warned him of danger, of gangings up against him--he was never so dangerous himself as when others considered him surrounded.

1934, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night