gag
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɡæɡ/
rhymes: -æɡ
Forms: form: gags
form: gagging
form: gagged
form: gagged
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: He gagged when he saw the open wound.
glosses: To experience the vomiting reflex.
examples: text: 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 […]
ref: 2008, Stephen King, A Very Tight Place:
glosses: To cause to heave with nausea.
examples: text: “[…] 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. […]”
ref: 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:
text: 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!
ref: 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:
glosses: To restrain someone's speech by blocking his or her mouth.
examples: 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 […]
glosses: To pry or hold open by means of a gag.
examples: text: When the financial irregularities were discovered, the CEO gagged everyone in the accounting department.
text: The time was not yet come when eloquence was to be gagged, and reason to be hoodwinked.
ref: c. 1840, Thomas Macaulay, Essay on Machiavelli:
text: Vaid blasted the Bush administration for gagging doctors from discussing abortion.
ref: 1992 May 8, John Zeh, Gay Community News, page 3:
glosses: To restrain someone's speech without using physical means.
glosses: To choke; to retch.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1777, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin, published 2001, page 79:
glosses: To deceive (someone); to con.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2024 May 10, Justin Moran, quoting Isaac Dunbar, “Isaac Dunbar and Kerri Colby Were Built for This”, in Paper:
qualifier: LGBTQ slang
glosses: To astonish (someone); to leave speechless.
Derived terms: gag a buzzard off a gut wagon
gag a dog off a gut wagon
gag a maggot
gaggable
gaggee
gagger
gag it
gag me with a spoon
regag
ungag
Related terms: blech
retch
ag-gag