Meaning

8 senses

  1. (intransitive)To experience the vomiting reflex.

    He gagged when he saw the open wound.

    würgen

  2. (transitive)To cause to heave with nausea.

    cause to retch or choke

  3. (transitive)To restrain someone's speech by blocking his or her mouth.

  4. (transitive)To pry or hold open by means of a gag.

  5. (figuratively, transitive)To restrain someone's speech without using physical means.

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

    knebeln, mundtot machen

  6. (ambitransitive)To choke; to retch.

  7. (transitive)To astonish (someone); to leave speechless.

  8. (ambitransitive, obsolete, slang)To deceive (someone); to con.

Examples

64 sentences

  1. The hostages were bound and gagged.

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  2. They put a gag on Tom.

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  3. A gag order has been issued.

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  4. We're all under a gag order.

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  5. Tom untied the knot and removed the gag.

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Translations

7 languages
Deutsch
By meaning 2
to experience the vomiting reflex:
To restrain someone's speech:

Origin

The noun is from Early Modern English gagge; the verb is from Middle English gaggen. Possi

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.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

gags, gagging, gagged, gagged
Base formgag · to gag
3rd person singulargags
Present participlegagging
Past simplegagged
Past participlegagged

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theygag
he, she, itgags

Past simpleLesson

all personsgagged

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave gagged
he, she, ithas gagged

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill gag

Synonyms

8 synonyms
Close in meaning
  • make an unsuccessful effort to vomit; strain to vomit:heaveretch
  • cause to retch or choke:choke
  • struggle for breath; have insufficient oxygen intake:chokestranglesuffocate
  • make jokes or quips:quip
  • tie a gag around someone's mouth in order to silence them:muzzle
  • prevent from speaking out:muzzle

Word family

9 related words
Relatedblechretchag-gag
Derivedgaggablegaggeegaggergag itregagungag

Lessons for this word

3 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
gadgetC1gaffgaffegagagagglegaietyB2

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

gag — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto