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Gag vs Retch - What's the difference?

gag | retch |

As nouns the difference between gag and retch

is that gag is gag (a joke or other mischievous prank) while retch is an unsuccessful effort to.

As a verb retch is

to make an unsuccessful effort to vomit; to strain, as in vomiting.

gag

English

Abbreviation

(Abbreviation) (head) (Group-specific antigen)
  • group specific antigens

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • A device to restrain speech, such as a rag in the mouth secured with tape or a rubber ball threaded onto a cord or strap.
  • (legal) An order or rule forbidding discussion of a case or subject.
  • A joke or other mischievous prank.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=May 20 , author=Nathan Rabin , title=TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Marge Gets A Job” (season 4, episode 7; originally aired 11/05/1992) , work=The Onion AV Club citation , page= , passage=We all know how genius “Kamp Krusty,” “A Streetcar Named Marge,” “Homer The Heretic,” “Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie” and “Mr. Plow” are, but even the relatively unheralded episodes offer wall-to-wall laughs and some of the smartest, darkest, and weirdest gags ever Trojan-horsed into a network cartoon with a massive family audience.}}
  • A convulsion of the upper digestive tract.
  • (archaic) A mouthful that makes one retch or choke.
    • a gag of mutton fat
    (Lamb)

    Synonyms

    * (legal) gag order * (joke) See also

    Derived terms

    * sight gag

    Verb

  • To experience the vomiting reflex.
    • He gagged when he saw the open wound.
  • To cause to heave with nausea.
  • (rfc-sense) To : to order a recruit to exercise until he "gags" (usually spoken in exaggeration).
  • To restrain someone's speech by blocking his or her mouth.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
    • , title= , chapter=1 citation , passage=“[…] Captain Markam had been found lying half-insensible, gagged and bound, on the floor of the sitting-room, his hands and feet tightly pinioned, and a woollen comforter wound closely round his mouth and neck?; whilst Mrs. Markham's jewel-case, containing valuable jewellery and the secret plans of Port Arthur, had disappeared. […]”}}
    ''The victims could not speak because the burglar had gagged them with duct tape.
  • (figuratively) To restrain someone's speech without using physical means.
    • When the financial irregularities were discovered, the CEO gagged everyone in the accounting department.
  • * Macaulay
    • The time was not yet come when eloquence was to be gagged , and reason to be hoodwinked.
  • To pry or hold open by means of a gag.
  • * Fortescue (translation)
    • mouths gagged to such a wideness

    Derived terms

    * gag me with a spoon

    retch

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (l)

    Verb

  • To make an unsuccessful effort to vomit; to strain, as in vomiting.
  • * Byron
    • Here he grew inarticulate with retching .

    Noun

    (es)
  • an unsuccessful effort to

    • Anagrams

    *