gag

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.

• IPA^(key): /ɡæɡ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æɡ

gag (countable and uncountable, plural gags)

1. 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.
   • 2014, Anil Aggrawal, APC Essentials of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, page 298:

     Blood may seep to the back of the throat and may clot, producing an “artificial gag” of clotted blood.

2. (law) An order or rule forbidding discussion of a case or subject.
3. (figurative) Any suppression of freedom of speech.
   • 2021 August 6, Online Reporters, “Civil Court blocks PM's gag on free speech”, in Bangkok Post‎, retrieved 2021-08-06:

     Civil Court blocks PM's gag on free speech

4. A joke or other mischievous prank.
   • 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:

     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.

5. (film) a device or trick used to create a practical effect; a gimmick
   • 2016 November 3, Ian Failes, “How the King of Practical Effects Conquered ‘Hacksaw Ridge’”, in Inverse‎:

     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.

6. A convulsion of the upper digestive tract.
7. (archaic) A mouthful that makes one retch or choke.
   • 2008, Charles Lamb, Percy Fitzgerald, The Life, Letters, and Writings of Charles Lamb - Volume 3, page 153:

     L. has recorded the repugnance of the school to gags, or the fat of fresh beef boiled, and sets it down to some superstition.

   • 2013, Kathleen Cioffi, Alternative Theatre in Poland, page 123:

     ...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,...

8. (archaic, slang, uncountable) Unscripted lines introduced by an actor into his part.
   • 1882, Dutton Cook, A Book of the Play, page 329:

     "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.

   • 1886, The Theatre, volume 1, page 11:

     […] 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.

9. Mycteroperca microlepis, a species of grouper.

   Synonym: gag grouper

   • 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:

     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.

• (legal): gag order
• (joke): See also Thesaurus:joke

• → French: gag
• → Italian: gag
• → Spanish: gag

gag (third-person singular simple present gags, present participle gagging, simple past and past participle gagged)

1. (intransitive) To experience the vomiting reflex.

   He gagged when he saw the open wound.

2. (transitive) To cause to heave with nausea.
   • 2008, Stephen King, A Very Tight Place:

     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 […]

3. (transitive) To restrain someone's speech by blocking his or her mouth.
   • 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:

     “ […] 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. […] ”

   • 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:

     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!

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. (transitive, figuratively) To restrain someone's speech without using physical means.

   When the financial irregularities were discovered, the CEO gagged everyone in the accounting department.

   • c. 1840, Thomas Macaulay, Essay on Machiavelli:

     The time was not yet come when eloquence was to be gagged, and reason to be hoodwinked.

   • 1992 May 8, John Zeh, Gay Community News, page 3:

     Vaid blasted the Bush administration for gagging doctors from discussing abortion.

6. (transitive, intransitive) To choke; to retch.
7. (transitive, intransitive, obsolete, slang) To deceive (someone); to con.
   • 1777, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin, published 2001, page 79:

     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.

8. (transitive, intransitive, slang, LGBT) To astonish (someone); (to cause someone) to be at a loss for words; to leave speechless; to be left speechless.

• blech
• retch

• ag-gag (etymologically unrelated)

• “gag”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• “gag”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• agg

From English gag.

gag

1. (Cantonese) joke; gag

Borrowed from English gag.

• IPA^(key): /ɡaɡ/

gag m (plural gags)

1. joke

• “gag”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowed from English gag.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɛɡ/[1]
• Rhymes: -ɛɡ

gag m (invariable)

1. gag, joke

   Synonyms: scherzo, freddura; see also Thesaurus:battuta

• agg.

• Audio

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gag m (plural gags)

1. jay

Borrowed from English gag.

• IPA^(key): /ɡak/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ak
• Syllabification: gag

gag m inan

1. (comedy) gag (joke or prank)

• gag in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• gag in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from French gag.

gag n (plural gaguri)

1. joke

Borrowed from English gag.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡaɡ/ [ˈɡaɣ̞]
• Rhymes: -aɡ
• Syllabification: gag

gag m (plural gags)

1. gag (joke)

• “gag”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

• (Standard Zhuang) IPA^(key): /kaːk˧/
• Tone numbers: gag⁸
• Hyphenation: gag

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “From 各?”)

gag (Sawndip forms 各 or 架 or 格, 1957–1982 spelling gag)

1. by oneself; alone

   Synonym: (dialectal) haek

2. on one's own; by oneself; without permission

   Synonym: (dialectal) gujgag

3. just; only

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “From 咯? 咳?”)

gag (1957–1982 spelling gag)

1. to eject; to cough up

   Synonym: (dialectal) gak