wheeze

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   (Briticism) a clever or amusing scheme or trick

   a clever wheeze probably succeeded in neutralizing the German espionage threat

2. 2
   verb

   To breathe hard, and with an audible piping or whistling sound, as persons affected with asthma.

   If the air smelled even faintly of dog, Lionel coughed, wheezed and sneezed.

3. 3
   verb

   To convulse with laughter; to become breathless due to intense laughing.

   Mrs. Hearty began to shake and wheeze with laughter, and Millie stood looking at Bindle.

4. 4
   verb

   To make a sound that resembles the sound of human wheezing.

   "Even the fish know it; they don't rise to the bait any more and the birds are scared - hear how they wheeze and cry as they seek the land."

5. 5
   noun

   An ulterior scheme or plan.

   Didn’t catch me napping that wheeze.

6. 6
   noun

   Something very humorous or laughable.

   The new comedy is a wheeze.

7. 7
   noun

   A sound that resembles a human wheezing.

   At the same time I felt them fall over my brows — time to get a cut — the engine gave a final wheeze and died.

8. 8
   noun

   breathing with a husky or whistling sound

Etymology

From Middle English whesen, perhaps from Old Norse hvæsa (“to hiss”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwes- (“to pant”).