Meaning

noun a humorous anecdote or remark intended to provoke laughter

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

verb prevent from speaking out

originThe 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…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0