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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:
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)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they gag ... he / she / it gags
Past simple: gagged
-ing form: gagging
Sense 1
Meaning:
Make an unsuccessful effort to vomit; strain to vomit
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s
Sense 2
Meaning:
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:
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:
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:
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)
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)