English Explanatory Dictionary

cough

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. 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.
  2. To cause (oneself or something) to be in a certain condition in the manner described in etymology 1 sense 1.1.
  3. To express (words, etc.) in the manner described in etymology 1 sense 1.1.
  4. To surrender (information); to confess.
  5. Chiefly followed by up: to give up or hand over (something); especially, to pay up (money).
  6. 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.
  7. To make a noise like a cough.
  8. To surrender information; to confess, to spill the beans.
noun
  1. A sudden, often involuntary expulsion of air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound), and out through the mouth.
  2. A bout of repeated coughing (verb etymology 1 sense 2.1); also, a medical condition that causes one to cough.
  3. A noise or sound like a cough (etymology 2, noun sense 1).
  4. A vocalisation from a bird or other animal resembling a human cough.
intj
  1. Used to represent the sound of a cough (noun sense 1), especially when focusing attention on a following utterance, often an attribution of blame or a euphemism: ahem.

Pronunciation

/kɒf/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cough.wav /kɔːf/ kôf /kɔf/ En-us-cough.ogg /kɑʔf/ kŏf /kɑf/ /kəf/

Word forms

cough coughs coughing coughed no-table-tags glossary coughest coughedst cougheth

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 (“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 kiche (“to cough”), kochelje (“to cough persistently”)

Synonyms

tussis

Derived words

cough down cougher coughing coughingly cough out cough over cough up cough and a spit cough attack cough button cough candy cough capsule cough drop cough drug cough expectorant cough fracture cough impulse cough linctus cough lolly cough lozenge cough medicine cough mixture cough muscle cough pill cough preparation cough reflex cough reliever cough remedy cough suppressant cough sweet cough syncope cough syrup cough tablet cough tea cough test coughy hiccough Holocough soften someone's cough upper airway cough syndrome
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