cough

Meanings

Verb

• To push air from the lungs in a quick, noisy explosion.
• To force something out of the throat or lungs by coughing.
• To make a noise like a cough.

Noun

• A sudden, usually noisy expulsion of air from the lungs, often involuntary.
• A condition that causes one to cough; a tendency to cough.

Related

Similar words

• tussis

Narrower meaning words

• barking cough
• bitonal cough
• blood cough
• chesty cough
• choking cough
• churchyard cough
• congested cough
• croupy cough
• dry cough
• effective cough
• hacking cough
• lingering cough
• loose cough
• nasty cough
• nervous cough
• non-productive cough
• obstinate cough
• paroxysmal cough
• persistent cough
• productive cough
• retching cough
• single cough
• smoker's cough
• spasmodic cough
• staccato cough
• tickling cough
• tickly cough
• tooth cough
• tracheal cough
• wet cough

Origin

• From Middle English coughen, coghen, from Old English cohhian (compare Old English cohhetan ("to shout")), from Proto-Germanic *kuh-. Cognate with Dutch kuchen ("to cough"), German keuchen ("to pant"), Albanian hukat ("pant, gasp").