different between gag vs antigag

English

Etymology

The verb is from 15th-century Middle English gaggen, Early Modern English gagge, 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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æ?/
• Rhymes: -æ?

Noun

gag (plural gags)

2. 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.
3. (law) An order or rule forbidding discussion of a case or subject.
4. A joke or other mischievous prank.
5. (film) a device or trick used to create a practical effect; a gimmick
6. A convulsion of the upper digestive tract.
7. (archaic) A mouthful that makes one retch or choke.
8. Mycteroperca microlepis, a species of grouper.

   Synonym: gag grouper

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

• gagless
• sight gag

Descendants

• ? French: gag
• ? Italian: gag
• ? Spanish: gag

Translations

Verb

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

1. (intransitive) To experience the vomiting reflex.

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.
   • 1906, Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman:

     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.

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

Derived terms

• gag me with a spoon

Translations

Related terms

• blech
• retch

References

• gag in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Further reading

• gag at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• agg

French

Etymology

From English gag.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?a?/

Noun

gag m (plural gags)

1. joke

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English gag.

Noun

gag m (invariable)

1. gag, joke

   Synonyms: scherzo, freddura; see also Thesaurus:battuta

Occitan

Noun

gag m (plural gags)

1. jay

Romanian

Etymology

From French gag.

Noun

gag n (plural gaguri)

1. joke

Declension

Spanish

Etymology

From English gag.

Noun

gag m (plural gags)

1. gag (joke)

Zhuang

Pronunciation

• (Standard Zhuang) IPA^(key): /ka?k?/
• Tone numbers: gag⁸
• Hyphenation: gag

Etymology 1

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

Adverb

gag (Sawndip forms ? or ? or ?, old orthography gag)

1. by oneself; alone

   Synonym: (dialectal) haek

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

   Synonym: (dialectal) gujgag

3. just; only

Derived terms

Etymology 2

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

Verb

gag (old orthography gag)

1. to eject; to cough up

   Synonym: (dialectal) gak

English

Etymology

anti- +? gag

Adjective

antigag (not comparable)

1. Preventing gagging.