wheeze

Meanings

1. To breathe hard, and with an audible piping or whistling sound, as persons affected with asthma.
2. To convulse with laughter; to become breathless due to intense laughing.
3. To make a sound that resembles the sound of human wheezing.

1. A piping or whistling sound caused by difficult respiration.
2. An ordinary whisper exaggerated so as to produce the hoarse sound known as the "stage whisper"; a forcible whisper with some admixture of tone.
3. An ulterior scheme or plan.
4. Something very humorous or laughable.
5. A sound that resembles a human wheezing.

Etymology

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