Library / English Dictionary

GAG

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: gagged    , gagging   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Restraint put into a person's mouth to prevent speaking or shouting

Synonyms:

gag; muzzle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("gag" is a kind of...):

constraint; restraint (a device that retards something's motion)

Derivation:

gag (tie a gag around someone's mouth in order to silence them)

gag (prevent from speaking out)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A humorous anecdote or remark intended to provoke laughter

Example:

even a schoolboy's jape is supposed to have some ascertainable point

Synonyms:

gag; jape; jest; joke; laugh

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("gag" is a kind of...):

humor; humour; wit; witticism; wittiness (a message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to evoke laughter)

Meronyms (parts of "gag"):

gag line; laugh line; punch line; tag line (the point of a joke or humorous story)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gag"):

belly laugh; howler; riot; scream; sidesplitter; thigh-slapper; wow (a joke that seems extremely funny)

blue joke; blue story; dirty joke; dirty story (an indelicate joke)

ethnic joke (a joke at the expense of some ethnic group)

funny; funny remark; funny story; good story (an account of an amusing incident (usually with a punch line))

in-joke (a joke that is appreciated only by members of some particular group of people)

one-liner (a one-line joke)

shaggy dog story (a long rambling joke whose humor derives from its pointlessness)

sick joke (a joke in bad taste)

sight gag; visual joke (a joke whose effect is achieved by visual means rather than by speech (as in a movie))

Derivation:

gag (make jokes or quips)

gagster (someone who writes comic material for public performers)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make an unsuccessful effort to vomit; strain to vomit

Synonyms:

gag; heave; retch

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cause to retch or choke

Synonyms:

choke; gag

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "gag" is one way to...):

sicken (make sick or ill)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Sense 3

Meaning:

Struggle for breath; have insufficient oxygen intake

Example:

he swallowed a fishbone and gagged

Synonyms:

choke; gag; strangle; suffocate

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "gag" is one way to...):

hurt; suffer (feel pain or be in pain)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s on something
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 4

Meaning:

Make jokes or quips

Example:

The students were gagging during dinner

Synonyms:

gag; quip

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "gag" is one way to...):

jest; joke (tell a joke; speak humorously)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

gag (a humorous anecdote or remark intended to provoke laughter)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Tie a gag around someone's mouth in order to silence them

Example:

The burglars gagged the home owner and tied him to a chair

Synonyms:

gag; muzzle

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "gag" is one way to...):

bind; tie (fasten or secure with a rope, string, or cord)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

gag (restraint put into a person's mouth to prevent speaking or shouting)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Be too tight; rub or press

Example:

This neckband is choking the cat

Synonyms:

choke; fret; gag

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "gag" is one way to...):

compact; compress; constrict; contract; press; squeeze (squeeze or press together)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sense 7

Meaning:

Prevent from speaking out

Example:

The press was gagged

Synonyms:

gag; muzzle

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "gag" is one way to...):

hush; hush up; quieten; shut up; silence; still (cause to be quiet or not talk)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to gag the prisoners

Derivation:

gag (restraint put into a person's mouth to prevent speaking or shouting)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I was confined to my room, terrorised by the most horrible threats, cruelly ill-used to break my spirit—see this stab on my shoulder and the bruises from end to end of my arms—and a gag was thrust into my mouth on the one occasion when I tried to call from the window.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A peptide vaccine containing the amino acids 267 through 274 of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) gag core protein (gag:267-274), with potential immunostimulating activity.

(Gag:267-274 Peptide Vaccine, NCI Thesaurus)