gag

To have a strong desire for something, especially a beverage of some kind. Primarily heard in UK, Ireland. Good lord, I am gagging for a cup of tea.

vulgar To have an intense desire for sex. Primarily heard in UK. Many people are under the impression that men are gagging for it 24 hours a day.

To be strikingly or shockingly disgusting, unappealing, or unattractive. Oh, Lisa's a terrible cook. Any dish she makes would surely gag a maggot! His physique was remarkable, but unfortunately he was cursed with a face that would gag a maggot.

A small gift that is meant to be humorous. Now that Dad has dentures, I bought him these wind-up chattering teeth as a gag gift.

An expression of disgust or annoyance. The phrase is usually attributed to Southern California's "Valley Girls" (young women living in the San Fernando Valley) in the 1970s and '80s. Gag me with a spoon, that food smells horrible! We're having a pop quiz today? Ugh, gag me with a spoon.

To have difficulty swallowing something. I can't possibly swallow a pill that big without gagging on it. Sounds like the cat is gagging on another hairball.

A court order prohibiting public reporting of or commentary on a current judicial case by the media or members of the press. Unfortunately, due to a gag order, we can't provide any more details about the murder trial until it is finished.

To waste time idly or aimlessly (some place); to loiter or loaf around (some place). You've been lollygagging around the house for the whole weekend—go play outside or something! Would you two quit lollygagging around and give me a hand?

A gag or humorous element that is introduced early on in a story and then appears or is referred to again repeatedly. There's this weird running gag throughout the novel about the protagonist's dislike of avocado, but it falls flat every single time. What was supposed to be a silly once-off joke in the pilot episode turned into a running gag.

vulgar slang An instance of fellatio in which a man's penis goes into his partner's throat and causes them to gag.

to choke on something; to retch on something. The dog is gagging on whatever you gave her. This fish is good, but I hope I don't gag on a bone.

If someone is gagging for it, they want very much to have sex. You could see he was gagging for it.

COMMON If someone is gagging for something, they want it very much. I arrived there late, hungry and gagging for a drink.

An exclamation indicating disgust. “Val-speak” was an idiom created in the 1970s by so-called Valley Girls, reputedly materialistic and self-centered young women who lived in California's San Fernando Valley (outside Los Angeles). Their vocabulary and speech patterns swept the country, propelled by popular music, television shows, and such movies as “Clueless” (based on Jane Austen's novel Emma). Like other fads, linguistic or otherwise, Val-speak disappeared almost as quickly as it had burst on the scene. Where once the staple “gag me with a spoon” (meaning that something was awful enough to induce nausea), was widely heard, it's gone the way of “well, dog my cat” and other archaisms. That's not to say that all Val-speak has disappeared. “As if ” (“that's not going to happen”), “duh!” (“that's obvious”), and the ubiquitous “like” are heard wherever the English language is used . . . and misused.