Lark and Gag

noun

• North American songbirds having a yellow breast.
  • synonyms: meadowlark
• A songbird that lives mainly on the ground in open country; has streaky brown plumage.
  • synonyms: pipit, titlark
• Any of numerous predominantly Old World birds noted for their singing.
• Any carefree episode.
  • synonyms: escapade

verb

• Play boisterously.
  • usage: "The children frolicked in the garden"; "the gamboling lambs in the meadows"; "The toddlers romped in the playroom"
  • synonyms: frolic, rollick, skylark, disport, sport, cavort, gambol, frisk, romp, run around, lark about

• (v.i.) To catch larks; as, to go larking.
• (n.) Any one numerous species of singing birds of the genus Alauda and allied genera (family Alaudidae). They mostly belong to Europe, Asia, and Northern Africa. In America they are represented by the shore larks or horned by the shore larks or horned larks, of the genus Otocoris. The true larks have holaspidean tarsi, very long hind claws, and usually, dull, sandy brown colors.
• (v.i.) A frolic; a jolly time.
• (v.i.) To sport; to frolic.

• English, American: From the English word for the type of songbird
• English: Lark

noun

• A humorous anecdote or remark intended to provoke laughter.
  • usage: "he told a very funny joke"; "he knows a million gags"; "thanks for the laugh"; "he laughed unpleasantly at his own jest"; "even a schoolboy's jape is supposed to have some ascertainable point"
  • synonyms: joke, laugh, jest, jape
• Restraint put into a person's mouth to prevent speaking or shouting.
  • synonyms: muzzle

verb

• Prevent from speaking out.
  • usage: "The press was gagged"
  • synonyms: muzzle
• Be too tight; rub or press.
  • usage: "This neckband is choking the cat"
  • synonyms: choke, fret
• Tie a gag around someone's mouth in order to silence them.
  • usage: "The burglars gagged the home owner and tied him to a chair"
  • synonyms: muzzle
• Make jokes or quips.
  • usage: "The students were gagging during dinner"
  • synonyms: quip
• Struggle for breath; have insufficient oxygen intake.
  • usage: "he swallowed a fishbone and gagged"
  • synonyms: choke, strangle, suffocate
• Cause to retch or choke.
  • synonyms: choke
• Make an unsuccessful effort to vomit; strain to vomit.
  • synonyms: heave, retch

• (n.) Something thrust into the mouth or throat to hinder speaking.
• (n.) A speech or phrase interpolated offhand by an actor on the stage in his part as written, usually consisting of some seasonable or local allusion.
• (v.i.) To introduce gags or interpolations. See Gag, n., 3.
• (v.t.) To cause to heave with nausea.
• (v.i.) To heave with nausea; to retch.
• (n.) A mouthful that makes one retch; a choking bit; as, a gag of mutton fat.
• (v.t.) To pry or hold open by means of a gag.
• (v.t.) To stop the mouth of, by thrusting sometimes in, so as to hinder speaking; hence, to silence by authority or by violence; not to allow freedom of speech to.