cough

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To push air out of your throat with a sudden, sharp sound, usually because of illness or irritation.

   I breathed in some smoke by mistake and started to cough.

2. 2
   noun

   A sudden, sharp sound made when air is forced out of the throat.

   Behind me, I heard a dry cough.

3. 3
   verb

   To force something out of your throat or lungs by coughing.

   He coughed up a little blood and the doctors grew worried.

From Middle English coughen, coghen (“to cough; to vomit”) [and other forms], from Old English *cohhian (compare Old English cohhetan (“to bluster; to riot; to cough (?)”)), from Proto-West Germanic *kuh- (“to cough”), ultimately of onomatopoeic origin. Cognates * Middle Dutch cuchen (“to cough”) (modern Dutch kuchen (“to cough”); German Low German kuchen (“to cough”)) * Middle High German kûchen (“to breathe (on); to exhale”), kîchen (“to breathe with difficulty”) (modern German keichen, keuchen (“to breathe with difficulty; to gasp, pant”)) * Spanish cof (“coughing sound”) * West Frisian kic…

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