gag

plural gags

1. countableuncountableA 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

   1. broadlycountableuncountablelawAn order or rule forbidding discussion of a case or subject.

      Synonyms: gag order

   2. countablefigurativelyuncountableAny 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

2. countableuncountablecomedyA joke or mischievous prank.

   1 more example

   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, archived from the original on 26 May 2012

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:joke

   1. countableuncountablebroadcastinga 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

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:joke

   2. countableuncountableLGBTQ slangcomedyA 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

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:joke

   3. archaicslanguncountableactingUnscripted 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

      2 more examples

      "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

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:joke

3. countableuncountableA convulsion of the upper digestive tract, caused by the gag reflex.
   1. archaiccountableuncountableA mouthful that makes one retch or choke.

      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

      1 more example

      ...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

4. countableuncountableAny 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

   Synonyms: gag grouper

present singular third person gags · participle present gagging · participle past gagged · past gagged

1. intransitiveTo experience the vomiting reflex.

   He gagged when he saw the open wound.

2. transitiveTo 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. transitiveTo 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

   1 more example

   “[…] 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. transitiveTo 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. figurativelytransitiveTo restrain someone's speech without using physical means.

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

   2 more examples

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

   c. 1840, Thomas Macaulay, Essay on Machiavelli

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

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

6. ambitransitiveTo choke; to retch.
7. ambitransitiveobsoleteslangTo 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. transitiveLGBTQ slangTo 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

plural GAGs

1. abbreviationAbbreviation of group-specific antigen.
2. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of glycosaminoglycan.