knebeln

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”.

knebeln (third-person singular simple present knebelt, past tense knebelte, past participle geknebelt, auxiliary haben)

1. (transitive) to gag (tie a piece of cloth around someone’s mouth to prevent them from shouting)
2. (transitive, less common) to hog-tie (tie up someone’s arms and legs to prevent them from moving)
   • 2011, Monika Kennedy, Horror in England – Mein Verlobter hat mich lebendig begraben, in: www.bild.de

     An Händen und Füßen geknebelt, der Mund verklebt, verscharrt in einem Papp-Sarg – ein Horror!

     Hog-tied at your hands and feet, adhesive tape over your mouth, buried in a cardboard coffin—a horror!

3. (transitive, figuratively) to hog-tie; to render helpless; to oppress; to enslave

• Many dictionaries give only the sense “to gag”, but the sense “to hog-tie” is attestable from Early Modern German to the present. Often both ideas also go hand in hand, especially in the combination gefesselt und geknebelt (“hog-tied and gagged”). Note that fesseln as such is broader in meaning, as it can also mean “to handcuff” or “to tie to something immovable”, which knebeln never does.