Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und., also gagg) to beg.

1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 42: I chant, I gagg; I sing Ballads, I beg.
1786		Whole Art of Thieving [as cit. 1753].
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1912		Leamington Spa Courier 20 Sept. 7/1: There are a great many tramps staying in this district at the present time [...] In addition to ‘gagging’ ‘scran’ (food) and ‘thonicks’ (coppers), they also get hold of a lot of old ‘clobber’ (clothes).
1936		W.A. Gape Half a Million Tramps 192: ‘How did you get this food?’ ‘I just gagged it,’ the tramp replied.

2. (also gagger) to deceive, take in or impose upon (a person).

1781		G. Parker View of Society II 154: A man who by some means or other gets footing in a gentleman’s house [...] Having discovered the weak side of him he means to gag, which he soon acquires a knowledge of, perhaps when he has found him overtaken in liquor.
1795		Sporting Mag. Dec. VII 163/1: To kick up a row or beat up a breeze, / I never sit quamp, like a mouse in a cheese, / But I go it and gag it, as loud as I please.
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 5: My eyes, how delightful! – the rabble well gagg’d, / The Swells in high feather, and old Boney lagg’d!
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 354/1: It’s the pounceys, too, that mostly go gagging where the girls walk.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 20 June 6/4: The old lady believed it all. But after he had left off ‘gagging’ her, and the conversation was serious, the topic of sheep and cattle farms cropped up.
1899		Sketch (London) 22 Feb. 18: One crime a night is the average brisk record of “Scrappers’ Alley” [...] a blind court where the unwary or drunken can be robbed and gagged at leisure.
1932		F. Jennings Tramping with Tramps 211: Gagger – to tell the tale, to move to pity.
1947		G. Fairlie Bulldog Drummond Stands Fast 75: Warned off? You haven’t been gagging?
1956		R.T. Hopkins Banker Tells All 43: Of course, she was only kidding – just gagging her way into the affair.
1997		L. Pettiway Workin’ It 242: I wouldn’t have to try to gag them, they would come. They were sucker.

3. to amuse.

1824		R.B. Peake Life of an Actor I iv: The actor, sir, is a creature of amusement [...] I have been gagging, as it is termed, for the last twenty-five years.
c.1840		‘The Agony Bill’ in Holloway & Black II (1979) 269: At this you’ll laugh for it’s meant to gag you.
1948		J.M. Cain Moth (1950) 307: He’d been half gagging up to them, but all of a sudden he got serious.
1981		G.V. Higgins Rat on Fire (1982) 20: The idea of Jerry Fein in court is something that’d gag a billy goat.
1995		(con. 1860s) P. Ackroyd Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem 152: I used to gag them by marching across the stage with a banner saying ‘Temporary Fire Curtain’.

4. to scold, to nag.

1837		Sessions Papers Sept. in DSUE (1984).
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.

5. to make a joke.

1848		Paul Pry 27 Nov. n.p.: Advises the ‘leading men’ at the Albert Saloon, to set a better example to the subordinates; and the ‘low comedian’ to remember decency when he ‘gags’.
1879		‘’Arry on Niggers’ in Punch 15 Mar. 113/2: Twig the joke? Made it only last night [...] / And I tell yer the roar was as loud as when Jolly Mug gags to the Gal.
1884		Referee 11 Dec. in Ware (1909) 89/2: David out-gagged even himself, and caused great laughter. Nobody else was worth a condemnation.
1925		L. Doyle Dear Ducks 78: ‘Hello, Joseph,’ sez I, gaggin’ him, ‘has the widow threw ye over?’.
1938		J.B. Booth Sporting Times 117: In some ten minutes Leno was gagging wildly at his best.
1941		J.M. Cain Mildred Pierce (1985) 344: He was always gagging about how lucky the married ones were on income-tax day.
1952		(con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 76: I don’t know what you mean [...] but I can tell you’re gagging with me.
1971		T. Thackrey Thief 347: We used to gag around a lot about it.
1997		L. Pettiway Workin’ It 220: I used to gag Zee.

6. to ad lib.

1853		Dickens Bleak House (1991) 558: The same vocalist ‘gags’ in the regular business like a man inspired.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 139/2: He has to ‘gag,’ that is, make up words.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 20 Nov. 12/1: Some [actors] are allowed to ‘gag’ whilst others are gagged.
1887		Daily Trib. (Bismarck, ND) 23 Oct. 4/1: When he supplies humor he ‘gags the part.’.
1890		J. Payn Notes from ‘News’ 81: The chorister boys [...] have been getting into trouble for what in theatrical circles is called ‘gagging’ – singing things that are not in the programme.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 23 June 8/3: They enter with all their hearts into the spirit of the burlesque, whilst resisting every temptation to ‘gag’ their parts.
1929		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 5 Nov. 4/3: [headline] Stage Gaggers who made History. Impromptu Lines in Famous Plays [...] This ‘business’ of the actor’s own — in theatrical parlance, ‘gagging’ — can boast a respected antiquity.
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 121: Was it a tape or just impromptu gagging?
1995		(con. 1870s) P. Ackroyd Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem 172: The two comedians were ‘gagging’ one another and delivering lines extempore.

7. to persuade, to boost, to promote.

1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 325: They gag the thing up, and send their bills out about the immense cost of scenery and dresses, and other expenses.
c.1921		T. Norman Penny Showman 24: I would exhibit that woman and Gag (boost) her up for all I was worth.

8. (also gag on) to inform against, to betray.

1891

Morning Advertiser 28 Mar: She [...] besought them with (crocodile) tears not to gag on them, in other words not to give information to the police [F&H].

9. to fix a horserace.

1991

(con. 1911) in J. Breslin Damon Runyon (1992) 134: Did you gag the race?

10. to fake, to falsify.

1965

J.P. Carstairs Concrete Kimono 54: How many custom forms I had deliberately gagged up, falsified.

11. (US campus) to find disgusting.

1984

Eble Campus Sl. Sept. 3: gag – repulse, sicken.

12. (US prison/drugs) to cheat; to sell fake drugs; thus gagger n., a seller of fake drugs.

1993		E. Richards Cocaine True 115: I been a gagger too, just to make some money. [...] Sharon was a lookout on the corner, when Jackie gagged four guys in a car. They found out and came back looking for her.
1997		L. Pettiway Workin’ It 132: I’ll gag folks. I’ll issue them. Sometimes they’ll come back after I’ve gagged them [...] They just say to me, ‘Look, come on. You didn’t have to do that. Just give me some real stuff’.
2000		Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Gagged: (1) To be shortchanged. (2) To be shown someone’s penis. (FL).

13. (US black) to arrest.

1995

L. Stavsky et al. A2Z.