gag
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɡæɡ/
rhymes: -æɡ
Forms: form: gags
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.
Senses: examples: text: Blood may seep to the back of the throat and may clot, producing an “artificial gag” of clotted blood.
ref: 2014, Anil Aggrawal, APC Essentials of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, page 298:
glosses: 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.
topics: law
glosses: An order or rule forbidding discussion of a case or subject.
examples: text: Civil Court blocks PM's gag on free speech
ref: 2021 August 6, Online Reporters, “Civil Court blocks PM's gag on free speech”, in Bangkok Post, retrieved 06 Aug 2021:
glosses: Any suppression of freedom of speech.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 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:
glosses: A joke or other mischievous prank.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2016 November 3, Ian Failes, “How the King of Practical Effects Conquered ‘Hacksaw Ridge’”, in Inverse:
topics: broadcasting
film
media
television
glosses: a device or trick used to create a practical effect; a gimmick
glosses: A convulsion of the upper digestive tract.
examples: text: L. has recorded the repugnance of the school to gags, or the fat of fresh beef boiled, and sets it down to some superstition.
ref: 2008, Charles Lamb, Percy Fitzgerald, The Life, Letters, and Writings of Charles Lamb - Volume 3, page 153:
text: ...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,...
ref: 2013, Kathleen Cioffi, Alternative Theatre in Poland, page 123:
glosses: A mouthful that makes one retch or choke.
examples: text: "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.
ref: 1882, Dutton Cook, A Book of the Play, page 329:
text: […] 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.
ref: 1886, The Theatre, volume 1, page 11:
text: The intelligent perfumer will evolve "gag" as he goes to suit the circumstances,[…]
ref: 1932 [1914], L. Widdop, Card Tricks, pages 16-17:
glosses: Unscripted lines introduced by an actor into his part.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 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:
synonyms: gag grouper
glosses: Mycteroperca microlepis, a species of grouper.
Synonyms: topics: legal
law
word: gag order
Derived terms: antigag
ballgag
ball gag
blackout gag
cleave gag
couch gag
detective gag
gag-a-day
gagfest
gaggery
gag gift
gaggy
gagless
gagman
gagmeister
gag reel
gag reflex
gag rein
gagroot
gag rule
gag runner
gagsmith
gagster
gag store
gagtooth
gagworthy
gagwriter
gagwriting
go along with the gag
handgag
pacifier gag
paci gag
ring gag
running gag
sight gag
spider gag
tape gag