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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

gag en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • (Southern-England) audio
  • /ɡeɪɡ/ Upper Midwestern US, Northwestern US, Canada
  • /ɡaɡ/ (British, Northern-England, Scotland, Southern, Standard, Wales)
  • /ɡæɡ/ (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)
  • /ɡæːɡ/ (Australia)
  • /ɡɛɡ/ (New-Zealand)

Etymology

The noun is from Early Modern English gagge; the verb is from Middle English gaggen. Possibly imitative or perhaps related to or influenced by Old Norse gag-háls ("with head thrown backwards"; > Norwegian dialectal gaga (“bent backwards”)). The intransitive sense "to retch" is from 1707. The noun is from the 16th century, figurative use (for "repression of speech") from the 1620s. The secondary meaning "(practical) joke" is from 1863, of unclear origin.

Meanings

  1. (countable, uncountable) A device to restrain speech, such as a rag in the mouth secured with tape or a rubber ball threaded onto a cord or strap.
    • Blood may seep to the back of the throat and may clot, producing an “artificial gag” of clotted blood. 2014, Anil Aggrawal, APC Essentials of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, page 298:
  2. (broadly, countable, uncountable) A device to restrain speech, such as a rag in the mouth secured with tape or a rubber ball threaded onto a cord or strap. ▸ An order or rule forbidding discussion of a case or subject.
  3. (countable, figuratively, uncountable) A device to restrain speech, such as a rag in the mouth secured with tape or a rubber ball threaded onto a cord or strap. ▸ Any suppression of freedom of speech.
    • Civil Court blocks PM's gag on free speech 2021 August 6, Online Reporters, “Civil Court blocks PM's gag on free speech”, in Bangkok Post, retrieved 06 Aug 2021:
  4. (countable, uncountable) A joke or mischievous prank.
    • We all know how genius “Kamp Krusty,” “A Streetcar Named Marge,” “Homer The Heretic,” “Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie” and “Mr. Plow” are, but even the relatively unheralded episodes offer wall-to-wall laughs and some of the smartest, darkest, and weirdest gags ever Trojan-horsed into a network cartoon with a massive family audience. 2012 May 20, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Marge Gets A Job” (season 4, episode 7; originally aired 11/05/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club:
  5. (countable, uncountable) A joke or mischievous prank. ▸ a device or trick used to create a practical effect; a gimmick
    • On Hacksaw Ridge, Oliver and his team of effects artisans devised gags for that spectacular flamethrower shot along with other devastating body and bullet hits, and several mortar and full-scale explosions, all aimed at communicating the reality of battle. 2016 November 3, Ian Failes, “How the King of Practical Effects Conquered ‘Hacksaw Ridge’”, in Inverse:
  6. (countable, qualifier:LGBTQ slang, uncountable) A joke or mischievous prank. ▸ A shocking or surprising thing.
    • That’s why it was a surprise when Elecktra Bionic won instead of her. No queen in Drag Race history had ever won with no challenge wins before Elecktra, so to say it was a gag would be an understatement. 2024 February 20, Dylan Kickham, These Are The 23 Most Controversial Eliminations In 'Drag Race' Herstory:
  7. (archaic, slang, uncountable) A joke or mischievous prank. ▸ Unscripted lines introduced by an actor into his part.
    • The intelligent perfumer will evolve "gag" as he goes to suit the circumstances,[…] 1932 [1914], L. Widdop, Card Tricks, pages 16-17:
    • "The Critic" has long been known in the theatre as a "gag-piece;" that is, a play which the performers consider themselves entitled to treat with the most merciless licence. 1882, Dutton Cook, A Book of the Play, page 329:
    • […] and my actors imbibe a reverence for their author, sir, which reverence I regret to observe is fast vanishing, in other places, under the baneful influence of gag, sir, gag! We play no pranks with the text, sir, in my company; if you cannot improve your author, which is generally doubtful, don't make him worse than he is. 1886, The Theatre, volume 1, page 11:
  8. (countable, uncountable) A convulsion of the upper digestive tract, caused by the gag reflex.
  9. (archaic, countable, uncountable) A convulsion of the upper digestive tract, caused by the gag reflex. ▸ A mouthful that makes one retch or choke.
    • ...and to take that fire behind the bony bars of the chest and into the tower of the windpipe, in one breath, before you choke on a gag of air thickened from the last breath of the executed the breathing of hot barrels and blood streaming on concrete,... 2013, Kathleen Cioffi, Alternative Theatre in Poland, page 123:
    • L. has recorded the repugnance of the school to gags, or the fat of fresh beef boiled, and sets it down to some superstition. 2008, Charles Lamb, Percy Fitzgerald, The Life, Letters, and Writings of Charles Lamb - Volume 3, page 153:
  10. (countable, uncountable) Any member of the species Mycteroperca microlepis of groupers.
    • The shallow water groups (Family Serranidae), including gag (Mycteroperca microlepis), black grouper (M. bonaci), scamp (M. phenax), and red grouper (Epinephalus morio), support major commercial and recreational fisheries in the southeastern United States. 1996, C.C. Koenig, “Reproduction in Gag (Mycteroperca microlepis) (Pisces: Serranidae) in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Consequences of Fishing Spawning Aggregations”, in Biology, Fisheries, and Culture of Tropical Groupers and Snappers:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
gags Number=Plur lexicographic

Deriveds

gag rule · gag reel · spider gag · gagster · gag-a-day · couch gag · ring gag · running gag · gaggery · blackout gag · gagsmith · handgag · gag gift · pacifier gag · gagless · paci gag · gagtooth · gagworthy · gagmeister · cleave gag · gagwriter · gag reflex · sight gag · gag store · gag runner · gagman · gagroot · tape gag · detective gag · go along with the gag · gagwriting · ballgag · ball gag · gag rein · antigag · gagfest · gaggy

Descendants

gag · gag · gag · ギャグ · gag · 개그 · gag · Gag · gag · gag

Synonyms

see Thesaurus:joke · see Thesaurus:joke · see Thesaurus:joke · gag order · see Thesaurus:joke · gag grouper

Translations (60)

de Knebel (device to restrain speech) · nl prop (device to restrain speech) · pt mordaça (device to restrain speech) · pt asco (convulsion) · uk за́тичка (device to restrain speech) · sv munkavle (device to restrain speech) · da opstød (convulsion) · fr gag (joke or prank) · it bavaglio (device to restrain speech) · da gag (joke or prank) · bg шега (joke or prank) · fr haut-le-cœur (convulsion) · mi mōkā (device to restrain speech) · fi suukapulamääräys (order or rule forbidding discussion) · ko 재갈 (device to restrain speech) · ru шу́тка (joke or prank) · es asco (convulsion) · fi pila (joke or prank) · ja ギャグ (device to restrain speech) · fi vitsi (joke or prank) · es mordaza (joke or prank) · fi suukapula (device to restrain speech) · eo buŝoŝtopilo (device to restrain speech) · gd glas-ghuib (device to restrain speech) · ko 개그 (joke or prank) · da knebel (device to restrain speech) · pl gag (joke or prank) · nb brekning (convulsion) · ka სარჭობი (device to restrain speech) · bg повдигане (convulsion) · cy smaldod (joke or prank) · cy safnrhwym (device to restrain speech) · ka ხუმრობა (joke or prank) · fi yökkäys (convulsion) · it scenetta (joke or prank) · mi koromōkā (device to restrain speech) · fr bâillon (device to restrain speech) · es basca (convulsion) · ka საცობი (device to restrain speech) · pl knebel (device to restrain speech) · de Gag (joke or prank) · ja 猿轡 (device to restrain speech) · cs roubík class s (device to restrain speech) · de Maulkorberlass (order or rule forbidding discussion) · ko 개그 (device to restrain speech) · uk жарт (joke or prank) · de Witz (joke or prank) · ga scéal grinn (joke or prank) · fi kepponen (joke or prank) · it trovata (joke or prank) · ja ギャグ (joke or prank) · nl knevel (device to restrain speech) · sv kväljning (convulsion) · ga gobán (device to restrain speech) · bg номер (joke or prank) · ca mordassa (device to restrain speech) · es mordaza (device to restrain speech) · uk кляп (device to restrain speech) · ru кляп (device to restrain speech) · cy safndag (device to restrain speech)

wikidata: Q651483 · wikidata: Q651483 · wikidata: Q651483

Source: en.wiktionary, “gag” (noun), dump 20260902, contributors via the page history. Text licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

gag en · VERB

Pronunciation

  • (Southern-England) audio
  • /ɡeɪɡ/ Upper Midwestern US, Northwestern US, Canada
  • /ɡaɡ/ (British, Northern-England, Scotland, Southern, Standard, Wales)
  • /ɡæɡ/ (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)
  • /ɡæːɡ/ (Australia)
  • /ɡɛɡ/ (New-Zealand)

Etymology

The noun is from Early Modern English gagge; the verb is from Middle English gaggen. Possibly imitative or perhaps related to or influenced by Old Norse gag-háls ("with head thrown backwards"; > Norwegian dialectal gaga (“bent backwards”)). The intransitive sense "to retch" is from 1707. The noun is from the 16th century, figurative use (for "repression of speech") from the 1620s. The secondary meaning "(practical) joke" is from 1863, of unclear origin.

Meanings

  1. (intransitive) To experience the vomiting reflex.
    • He gagged when he saw the open wound.
  2. (transitive) To cause to heave with nausea.
    • His empty stomach was suddenly full of butterflies, and for the first time since arriving here at scenic Durkin Grove Village, he felt an urge to gag himself. He would be able to think more clearly about this if he just stuck his fingers down his throat […] 2008, Stephen King, A Very Tight Place:
  3. (transitive) To restrain someone's speech by blocking his or her mouth.
    • They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead, / But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed; / Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their side! 1906 August, Alfred Noyes, “The Highwayman”, in Poems, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 2, stanza II, page 49:
    • “[…] Captain Markam had been found lying half-insensible, gagged and bound, on the floor of the sitting-room, his hands and feet tightly pinioned, and a woollen comforter wound closely round his mouth and neck ; whilst Mrs. Markham's jewel-case, containing valuable jewellery and the secret plans of Port Arthur, had disappeared. […]” 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Fate of the Artemis”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:
  4. (transitive) To pry or hold open by means of a gag.
    • 1917, Francis Gregor (translator), De Laudibus Legum Angliae, Sir John Fortescue, written 1468–1471, first published 1543. […] some have their mouths gagged to such a wideness, for a long time, whereat such quantities of water are poured in, that their bellies swell to a prodigious degree […]
  5. (figuratively, transitive) To restrain someone's speech without using physical means.
    • The time was not yet come when eloquence was to be gagged, and reason to be hoodwinked. c. 1840, Thomas Macaulay, Essay on Machiavelli:
    • When the financial irregularities were discovered, the CEO gagged everyone in the accounting department.
    • Vaid blasted the Bush administration for gagging doctors from discussing abortion. 1992 May 8, John Zeh, Gay Community News, page 3:
  6. (ambitransitive) To choke; to retch.
  7. (ambitransitive, obsolete, slang) To deceive (someone); to con.
    • I endeavoured what I could to soften off the affectation of her sudden change of Disposition; and I gagged the Gentleman with as much ease as my very little ease would allow me to assume. 1777, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin, published 2001, page 79:
  8. (qualifier:LGBTQ slang, transitive) To astonish (someone); to leave speechless.
    • I knew who you were as a [RuPaul's] Drag Race fan. So I was gagged personally and I still am gagged, but it was quite divine intervention. Thom Kerr, the photographer, really got the ball rolling and I had no idea what to expect of this shoot besides greatness. 2024 May 10, Justin Moran, quoting Isaac Dunbar, “Isaac Dunbar and Kerri Colby Were Built for This”, in Paper:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
gagged Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
gagged Tense=Past lexicographic
gags Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
gagging Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic

Deriveds

gag me with a spoon · gag it · gag a dog off a gut wagon · gaggable · gaggee · gagger · gag a buzzard off a gut wagon · ungag · gag a maggot · regag

Relateds

retch · blech · ag-gag

Translations (38)

ota اوكورمك (to experience the vomiting reflex) · nl kokhalzen (to experience the vomiting reflex) · pt engulhar (to experience the vomiting reflex) · pt ter ânsia de vômito (to experience the vomiting reflex) · da gylpe (to experience the vomiting reflex) · tr öğürmek (to experience the vomiting reflex) · bg повдига ми се (to experience the vomiting reflex) · mi koromōkā (To restrain someone's speech) · ka ჩაჩუმება (To restrain someone's speech) · fi kakistella (to experience the vomiting reflex) · cmn 干呕 (to experience the vomiting reflex) · de knebeln (To restrain someone's speech) · es basquear (to experience the vomiting reflex) · fr bâillonner (To restrain someone's speech) · gl arquexar (to experience the vomiting reflex) · fi suukapuloida (To restrain someone's speech) · pl zakneblować (To restrain someone's speech) · de mundtot machen (To restrain someone's speech) · de würgen (to experience the vomiting reflex) · da kneble (To restrain someone's speech) · egy s-t:p-A2 (to experience the vomiting reflex) · it imbavagliare (To restrain someone's speech) · sv få kväljningar (to experience the vomiting reflex) · pl kneblować (To restrain someone's speech) · mi whakamōkā (To restrain someone's speech) · ka ხმის ჩაწყვეტინება (To restrain someone's speech) · fi yökätä (to experience the vomiting reflex) · ca emmordassar (To restrain someone's speech) · es tener arcadas (to experience the vomiting reflex) · pt amordaçar (To restrain someone's speech) · fr avoir un haut-le-cœur (to experience the vomiting reflex) · vi ọe (to experience the vomiting reflex) · nl knevelen (To restrain someone's speech) · mi whakapoutiki (to experience the vomiting reflex) · nb brekke seg (to experience the vomiting reflex) · es amordazar (To restrain someone's speech) · mi pūtanetane (to experience the vomiting reflex) · pt ter ânsia (to experience the vomiting reflex)