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GERMAN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

knebeln.

to gag (tie a piece of cloth around someone’s mouth to prevent them from shouting)

7 characters2 syllables approx.Deutsch language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈkneːbəln/
  1. to gag (tie a piece of cloth around someone’s mouth to prevent them from shouting)

    transitive · weak
  2. to hog-tie (tie up someone’s arms and legs to prevent them from moving)

    transitive · uncommon · weak
  3. to hog-tie; to render helpless; to oppress; to enslave

    figuratively · transitive · weak
Where this word comes from

17th century, derived from Knebel, from Middle High German knebel, from Old High German knebil. The word originally meant a stick used to tighten a tie or to bind something to, later also the tie itself. Dutch knevelen shows the same semantic development, being used chiefly for “to gag”, but also in the broader sense “to tie up”.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.