Talk:gag

RFC discussion: February 2011
Sense: (US Army slang) To smoke : to order a recruit to exercise until he "gags" (usually spoken in exaggeration).


 * I don't get whether this is one or two senses. Of course we don't have any citations. DCDuring TALK 15:22, 11 February 2011 (UTC)
 * I think the intent is "To order a recruit to exercise excessively" with etymology "to order a recruit to exercise until he gags chokes" and synonym "smoke". Not sure, though. &#x200b;—msh210℠ (talk) 16:06, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

rfquotek:Lamb
I do not understand this edit, why would the editor who contributes an unreferenced, unsubstantiated meaning at the same time place a request for a quote from a specific author? --Dbachmann (talk) 10:32, 9 April 2016 (UTC)

I see, it's from this. You haven't handled this very well though. The fact of the matter is that the definition "A mouthful that makes one retch; a choking bit" is from Webster 1913, and the quote "a gag of mutton fat" is from Lamb. I.e., you have already provided a quote from lamb, on the authority of Webster 1913. --Dbachmann (talk) 10:39, 9 April 2016 (UTC)


 * I'm not 100% sure of that. I think the "gag of mutton fat" is Webster's own example, and then (Charles) Lamb is given as somebody who has used the word in some other context. Hard to tell since Webster's entries sometimes do it my way and sometimes yours. Equinox ◑ 10:59, 9 April 2016 (UTC)

RFV discussion: February–April 2016
RFV-sense of the military sense. Had been tagged RFC for years. - -sche (discuss) 19:02, 12 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Was concealed as a quotation for a long time. Added by Ed Poor on October 13, 2006.  User has been inactive for a long time, making only ten edits since 2007, and none since 2012.  Not getting anything obviously relevant on Google Books or trying to combine key words and exclude irrelevant ones. This rather short glossary of user-submitted military slang supports the definition of "smoke" but doesn't suggest that it's synonymous with "gag".  This one and this one don't mention either.  There are tons of hits for "army slang" or "military slang", but they're not very well organized.  So far I haven't found either "gag" or "smoke" apart from that first hit for "smoke."  Maybe someone else will have more luck than I did, but my instinct is that the editor was confused about the word when this entry was made.  P Aculeius (talk) 00:42, 13 February 2016 (UTC)
 * I could find a good number of hits for "get|got smoked", but not for "get|got gagged". DCDuring TALK 01:30, 13 February 2016 (UTC)


 * RFV-failed. - -sche (discuss) 02:13, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

RFV discussion: September 2019
Rfv-sense: "(archaic) A mouthful that makes one retch or choke."

Supported by many mentions and single cite from, , which I cannot find. It's plausible, but I couldn't find a cite that unambiguously supports the definition. DCDuring (talk) 20:30, 2 September 2019 (UTC)


 * Yes, it's very difficult to find unambiguous quotes, because of all the other meanings of gag. For example, I found plenty of citations that speak of choking on a gag, but I suspect that is the type of gag one uses to keep someone from being heard. I did find a different cite by Charles Lamb quoted from one of his letters, and I found another text that looks like this meaning, but that is all I have found so far. Kiwima (talk) 21:40, 2 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Congratulations on finding what is very likely the real Lamb quote, misremembered or misrecorded by someone and then faithfully copied by dictionary after dictionary. I doubt if the world would miss this definition, since the idea comes across from the other definitions anyway. DCDuring (talk) 02:56, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
 * The typography in Webster’s 1913 dictionary indicates that the usage example “a gag of mutton fat” is not meant to be taken as a citation of Lamb, but merely that the sense it illustrates is to be found there. Meanwhile, Lamb only uses it in the plural form, gags, and nothing in the quotation suggests that the sense is restricted to a mouthful. As with gag-eater, the term may have been particular to . The term also occurs here, again in the plural. --Lambiam 15:06, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
 * More on gags and gag-eaters at Christ’s Hospital here (pp. 377–8). --Lambiam 15:21, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for clarifying the typography problem. Funny that the real Lamb cite just used different meat. DCDuring (talk) 20:09, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Lambs may find the idea of mutton consumption insufferable, like gag me with a spoon. --Lambiam 10:24, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

RFV-passed Kiwima (talk) 23:48, 11 September 2019 (UTC)


 * But I've moved one of the three citations, since this "artificial gag" appears to refer to the speech-preventing device. Equinox ◑ 15:17, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

Possible missing sense: a laughing stock
Chambers 1908 has the definition "(U.S.) a laughing stock". This is potentially distinct from our sense of a joke or prank, since a laughing stock is a person (or institution etc.), not the trick played upon them. Equinox ◑ 15:15, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

porn sense
I have a feeling that gagging in porn has a separate meaning. Check out some videos if you really must, you know, to get an idea of what it is... MM0898 (talk) 23:12, 9 January 2021 (UTC)