cough
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English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /kɒf/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - (Conservative RP) IPA(key): /kɔːf/
- (General American) enPR: kôf, IPA(key): /kɔf/
Audio (GA) (file) - (Canada, cot–caught merger) enPR: kŏf, IPA(key): /kɑf/
- Homophone: qoph (one pronunciation, cot-caught merger)
- Rhymes: -ɒf, -ɔːf
Etymology 1
From Middle English coughen, coghen (“to cough; to vomit”) , 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”)
Verb
cough (third-person singular simple present coughs, present participle coughing, simple past and past participle coughed)
- (transitive)
- 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.
- Sometimes she coughed up blood.
- 1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “The Great Sermon Handicap”, in The Inimitable Jeeves, Harmondsworth, Middlesex : Penguin Books, published 1979, →ISBN, page 139:
- Jeeves coughed one soft, low, gentle cough like a sheep with a blade of grass stuck in its throat, and then stood gazing serenely at the landscape.
- To cause (oneself or something) to be in a certain condition in the manner described in sense 1.1.
- He almost coughed himself into a fit.
- To express (words, etc.) in the manner described in sense 1.1.
- 1785, William Cowper, “Book IV. The Winter Evening.”, in The Task, a Poem, , London: J Johnson; , →OCLC, pages 144–145:
- No ſtationary ſteeds / Cough their ovvn knell, vvhile heedleſs of the ſound / The ſilent circle fan themſelves, and quake.
- (figurative)
- To surrender (information); to confess.
- (originally US, slang) Chiefly followed by up: to give up or hand over (something); especially, to pay up (money).
- 1909 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Whistling Dick’s Christmas Stocking”, in Roads of Destiny, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 324:
- By the time you get back the men will all be striking out for the fire, and we'll break for the house and collar the dollars. Everybody cough up what matches he's got.
- 1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “Pearls Mean Tears”, in The Inimitable Jeeves, Harmondsworth, Middlesex : Penguin Books, published 1979, →ISBN, page 40:
- Thanks to Jeeves I was not going to be called on to cough up several thousand quid.
- 1929 March–August, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “A Job for Percy Pilbeam”, in Summer Lightning, 1st UK edition, London: Herbert Jenkins , published 19 July 1929, →OCLC, section II, page 148:
- "Parsloe, will you or will you not cough up that pig?" / "I have not got your pig."
- 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.
- (intransitive)
- 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.
- I breathed in a lungful of smoke by mistake, and started to cough.
- 1577, Martial, “Epigrammes out of Martial. ”, in Timothe Kendall, transl., Flowers of Epigrammes , : for the Spenser Society, published 1874, →OCLC, pages 56–57:
- Yet notwithſtandyng all this geare, / thou cougheſt ſtill, perdy / Ye are a craftie knaue, you cough / to fare deliciouſly.
- c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. (First Quarto), London: N O for Thomas Walkley, , published 1622, →OCLC, , page 70:
- Leave procreants alone, and ſhut the dore, / Coffe, or cry hem, if any body come, […]
- 1828 May 15, [Walter Scott], chapter X, in Chronicles of the Canongate. Second Series. (The Fair Maid of Perth), volume III, Edinburgh: [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, page 259:
- "Did your lordship's servant see Simon Glover and his daughter?" said Henry, struggling for breath, and coughing, to conceal from the Provost the excess of his agitation.
- 1835 January 23 (date written), Frederic James Post, “A Discourse Touching Rides and Riding”, in Extracts from the Diary and Other Manuscripts of the Late Frederic James Post, of Islington. , London: for private circulation, published 1838, →OCLC, pages 331–332:
- But often, when thy face [i.e., that of a horse] is turned from the stable, thou hast an unaccountable desire to place it in the position occupied by thy tail: thou stoppest, coughest, shyest, and erst, with swift detorsion, turnest round, then, with sidelong glance of my magic caduceus, ominously wagging between the horizon and thy ample sides, I incite thee on, but rarely does thy pace more than trot, from home.
- 1869 May, Anthony Trollope, “Trevelyan Discourses on Life”, in He Knew He Was Right, volume II, London: Strahan and Company, , →OCLC, page 336:
- After this he fell a-coughing violently, and Stanbury thought it better to leave him.
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 246:
- "But it is unfortunate—you find me at the moment—" and he stopped short and coughed.
- 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
- I drew a deep breath, and a moment later wished I hadn't, because I drew it while drinking the remains of my gin and tonic. “Does Kipper know of this?“ I said, when I had finished coughing.
- To make a noise like a cough.
- The engine coughed and sputtered.
- 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XIX, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) , London: Chatto & Windus, , →OCLC, pages 169–170:
- Wake up, by-and-by, and look to see what done it, and maybe see a steamboat, coughing along up stream, so far off towards the other side you couldn't tell nothing about her only whether she was stern-wheel or side-wheel; then for about an hour there wouldn't be nothing to hear nor nothing to see—just solid lonesomeness.
- (originally US, slang) To surrender information; to confess, to spill the beans.
- 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.
Conjugation
Conjugation of cough
| infinitive | (to) cough | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| present tense | past tense | ||
| 1st-person singular | cough | coughed | |
| 2nd-person singular | cough, coughest† | coughed, coughedst† | |
| 3rd-person singular | coughs, cougheth† | coughed | |
| plural | cough | ||
| subjunctive | cough | coughed | |
| imperative | cough | — | |
| participles | coughing | coughed | |
Derived terms
Translations
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 specified in sense 1.1
to express (words, etc.) in the manner specified in sense 1.1
(transitive) to surrender (information); (intransitive) to surrender information — see confess
to pay up (money) — see pay up
to push air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound) and out through the mouth
|
to make a noise like a cough
|
Etymology 2
The noun is derived from Middle English cough (“a cough; illness causing coughing”) , from coughen (verb): see etymology 1.
The interjection is probably derived from the noun.
Noun
cough (plural coughs)
| Example | ||
|---|---|---|
A series of three coughs (noun sense 1). |
- A sudden, often involuntary expulsion of air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound), and out through the mouth.
- Behind me, I heard a distinct, dry cough.
- 1640, John Parkinson, “Cyperus dulcis rotundus esculentus, Trasi dulce vocatus. The Most Delicate Sweet Cyperus, or Rush Nut.”, in Theatrum Botanicum: The Theater of Plants. Or, An Herball of a Large Extent: , London: Tho Cotes, →OCLC, page 148:
- [I]t conduceth helpe to the crudities, humidities, and vvindineſſe of the ſtomacke and belly, and to helpe the ſhortneſſe of breath and coughes: […]
- 1709, Alexander Pope, “January and May; or, The Merchant’s Tale, from Chaucer”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: W Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, , published 1717, →OCLC, page 223:
- The lumpiſh husband ſnoar'd avvay the night, / Till coughs avvak'd him near the morning light.
- 1828 May 15, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in Chronicles of the Canongate. Second Series. (The Fair Maid of Perth), volume III, Edinburgh: [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, page 12:
- Dwining ventured to give a low cough once or twice, by way of signal; […]
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 26:
- One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.” He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis and another boy interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.
- 1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “The Great Sermon Handicap”, in The Inimitable Jeeves, Harmondsworth, Middlesex : Penguin Books, published 1979, →ISBN, page 139:
- Jeeves coughed one soft, low, gentle cough like a sheep with a blade of grass stuck in its throat, and then stood gazing serenely at the landscape.
- A bout of repeated coughing (verb sense 2.1); also, a medical condition that causes one to cough.
- (medical condition): Synonym: tussis
- Sorry, I can’t come to work today—I’ve got a nasty cough.
- c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, , quarto edition, London: V S for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
- [John] Fal[staff]. VVhat diſeaſe haſt thou? / [Peter] Bul[lcaff]. A horſon cold ſir, a cough ſir, vvhich I cought vvith ringing in the Kings affaires vpon his coronation day ſir.
- 1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “Foreshadowings”, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume II, Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC, page 81:
- Cough! you don't need to tell me about a cough. I've always been subject to a cough, all my days. […] O! Eva's cough is not anything.
- (figurative) A noise or sound like a cough (sense 1).
Hyponyms
- barking cough
- bitonal cough
- blood cough
- chesty cough
- chin cough
- choking cough
- churchyard cough
- congested cough
- croupy cough
- dry cough
- effective cough
- habit cough
- hacking cough
- hooping cough, whooping cough
- kennel cough
- Khumbu cough
- lingering cough
- loose cough
- miner's 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
- spicy cough
- staccato cough
- tickling cough
- tickly cough
- tooth cough
- tracheal cough
- trouser cough
- vampire cough
- wet cough
Derived terms
- 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
- soften someone's cough
- upper airway cough syndrome
Translations
sudden, often involuntary expulsion of air from the lungs through the glottis, and out through the mouth
|
bout of repeated coughing; medical condition that causes one to cough
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Interjection
cough
- 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.
- He was—cough—indisposed.
Translations
used to represent the sound of a cough
References
- ^ “cough, v.1”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “cough, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- ^ “cough, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- ^ Compare “cough, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “cough, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Further reading
Anagrams
Middle English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From coughen.
Pronunciation
Noun
cough (uncountable)
Descendants
References
- “cough, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.