gag

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.

noun

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. 2014, Anil Aggrawal, APC Essentials of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, page 298
2. (law) An order or rule forbidding discussion of a case or subject.
3. (figurative) Any suppression of freedom of speech.
   Civil Court blocks PM's gag on free speech 2021-08-06, Online Reporters, “Civil Court blocks PM's gag on free speech”, in Bangkok Post, retrieved 2021-08-06
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. May 20, 2012, 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
5. (film) 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. November 3, 2016, Ian Failes, “How the King of Practical Effects Conquered ‘Hacksaw Ridge’”, in Inverse
6. A convulsion of the upper digestive tract.
7. (archaic) A 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
   ...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
8. Mycteroperca microlepis, a species of grouper.
   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

verb

1. (intransitive) To experience the vomiting reflex.
   He gagged when he saw the open wound.
2. (transitive) 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 […] 2008, Stephen King, A Very Tight Place
3. (transitive) 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. […]” 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 1, in The Fate of the Artemis
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, figurative) To 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. c. 1840, Thomas Macaulay, Essay on Machiavelli
6. (transitive, intransitive) To choke; to retch.
7. (transitive, intransitive, obsolete, slang) To 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. (transitive, intransitive, slang, LGBT) To astonish (someone); to be at a loss for words.