different between smother vs gag

English

Alternative forms

• smoother (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?sm?ð?/
• Rhymes: -?ð?(r)

Etymology 1

From Middle English smothren, smortheren, alteration (due to smother, smorther (“a suffocating vapour, dense smoke”, noun)) of Middle English smoren (“to smother”), from Old English smorian (“to smother, suffocate, choke”), from Proto-Germanic *smur?n? (“to suffocate, strangle”). Cognate with Middle Low German smoren, smurten (“to choke, suffocate”), West Flemish smoren (“to smoke, reek”), Dutch smoren (“to suffocate, smother", also "to stew, simmer”), German schmoren (“to stew, simmer, braise”).

Verb

smother (third-person singular simple present smothers, present participle smothering, simple past and past participle smothered)

1. (transitive) To suffocate; stifle; obstruct, more or less completely, the respiration of something or someone.
2. (transitive) To extinguish or deaden, as fire, by covering, overlaying, or otherwise excluding the air.

3. (transitive) To reduce to a low degree of vigor or activity; suppress or do away with; extinguish

   Synonyms: stifle, cover up, conceal, hide

4. (transitive) In cookery: to cook in a close dish.

5. (transitive) To daub or smear.
6. (intransitive) To be suffocated.
7. (intransitive) To breathe with great difficulty by reason of smoke, dust, close covering or wrapping, or the like.
8. (intransitive, of a fire) to burn very slowly for want of air; smolder.
9. (intransitive, figuratively) to perish, grow feeble, or decline, by suppression or concealment; be stifled; be suppressed or concealed.
10. (soccer) To get in the way of a kick of the ball.
11. (Australian rules football) To get in the way of a kick of the ball, preventing it going very far. When a player is kicking the ball, an opponent who is close enough will reach out with his hands and arms to get over the top of it, so the ball hits his hands after leaving the kicker's boot, dribbling away.

Related terms

• smotheration
• smotheriness
• smothery

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English smother, smorther (“a suffocating vapour, dense smoke”), from Old English smorþor (“smoke”, literally “that which suffocates”), from smorian (“to suffocate, choke”) + -þor (instrumental suffix).

Noun

smother (plural smothers)

1. That which smothers or appears to smother, particularly
   1. Smoldering; slow combustion.
   2. Cookware used in such cooking. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
   3. (dated) The state of being stifled; suppression.
      • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Suspicion

        not to keep their suspicions in smother

   4. (dated) Stifling smoke; thick dust.
      • 1868, Judy (volumes 3-4, page 20)

        Then we passed the Grand Opéra, at which our fine taste revolted; the Rue de la Paix, all in a smother with the dust caused by its improvement, at which our eyes naturally distilled water; […]

   5. (Australian rules football) The act of smothering a kick (see verb section).

References

• smother in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• moth-ers, mothers, thermos

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