gag

noun

1. 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.

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

2. 2

   An order or rule forbidding discussion of a case or subject.

3. 3

   figurativeAny suppression of freedom of speech.

   Civil Court blocks PM's gag on free speech

4. 4

   A joke or other 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.

5. 5

   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.

6. 6

   A convulsion of the upper digestive tract.

7. 7

   archaicA 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.

   ...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. 8

   archaicUnscripted lines introduced by an actor into his part.

   "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.

   […] 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.

   The intelligent perfumer will evolve "gag" as he goes to suit the circumstances,[…]

9. 9

   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.

10. 10

    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.

verb

1. 1

   To experience the vomiting reflex.

   He gagged when he saw the open wound.

2. 2

   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 […]

3. 3

   To restrain someone's speech by blocking his or her mouth.

   “[…] 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. […]”

   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. 4

   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. 5

   figurativeTo restrain someone's speech without using physical means.

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

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

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

6. 6

   To choke; to retch.

7. 7

   obsoleteTo 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.

8. 8

   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.

Forms

plural

gags

past tense

gagged

past participle

gagged

present participle

gagging

third person singular

gags