cough
Pronunciation: /kɒf/
The English word “cough” has 13 meanings listed here.
verb
- Sometimes followed by up: to force (something) out of the lungs or throat by pushing air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound), and out through the mouth.
- To cause (oneself or something) to be in a certain condition in the manner described in etymology 1 sense 1.1.
- To express (words, etc.) in the manner described in etymology 1 sense 1.1.
- To surrender (information); to confess.
- Chiefly followed by up: to give up or hand over (something); especially, to pay up (money).
- To push air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound) and out through the mouth, usually to expel something blocking or irritating the airway.
- To make a noise like a cough.
- To surrender information; to confess, to spill the beans.
noun
- A sudden, often involuntary expulsion of air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound), and out through the mouth.
- A bout of repeated coughing (verb etymology 1 sense 2.1); also, a medical condition that causes one to cough.
- A noise or sound like a cough (etymology 2, noun sense 1).
- A vocalisation from a bird or other animal resembling a human cough.
interjection
Etymology
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…
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.