Plural form meaning to poison, stun, or kill with toxic gas; or to talk excessively about something unimportant.
From 'gas' (the physical state of matter, from Dutch 'chaos'). The verb form with the sense 'to poison with gas' emerged in the 20th century after World War I chemical weapons use became public knowledge.
The word 'gas' itself is fascinating—the Dutch chemist Van Helmont invented it around 1625 by combining 'chaos' with the Dutch 'g' sound to describe something that couldn't be contained. Then the word gained a horrifying new meaning during WWI.
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