cough

verb

1. 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.

   Sometimes she coughed up blood.

   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.

2. 2

   To cause (oneself or something) to be in a certain condition in the manner described in etymology 1 sense 1.1.

   He almost coughed himself into a fit.

3. 3

   To express (words, etc.) in the manner described in etymology 1 sense 1.1.

   No ſtationary ſteeds / Cough their ovvn knell, vvhile heedleſs of the ſound / The ſilent circle fan themſelves, and quake.

4. 4

   figurativeTo surrender (information); to confess.

5. 5

   figurativeChiefly followed by up: to give up or hand over (something); especially, to pay up (money).

   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.

   Thanks to Jeeves I was not going to be called on to cough up several thousand quid.

   "Parsloe, will you or will you not cough up that pig?" / "I have not got your pig."

6. 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.

   I breathed in a lungful of smoke by mistake, and started to cough.

   Yet notwithſtandyng all this geare, / thou cougheſt ſtill, perdy / Ye are a craftie knaue, you cough / to fare deliciouſly.

   Leave procreants alone, and ſhut the dore, / Coffe, or cry hem, if any body come, […]

   "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.

7. 7

   To make a noise like a cough.

   The engine coughed and sputtered.

   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.

8. 8

   slangTo surrender information; to confess, to spill the beans.

noun

1. 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.

   [I]t conduceth helpe to the crudities, humidities, and vvindineſſe of the ſtomacke and belly, and to helpe the ſhortneſſe of breath and coughes: […]

   The lumpiſh husband ſnoar'd avvay the night, / Till coughs avvak'd him near the morning light.

   Dwining ventured to give a low cough once or twice, by way of signal; […]

2. 2

   A bout of repeated coughing (verb etymology 1 sense 2.1); also, a medical condition that causes one to cough.

   whooping cough

   Sorry, I can’t come to work today—I’ve got a nasty cough.

   [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.

   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.

3. 3

   figurativeA noise or sound like a cough (etymology 2, noun sense 1).

4. 4

   A vocalisation from a bird or other animal resembling a human cough.

interjection

1. 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.

   He was—cough—indisposed.

Forms

plural

coughs

past tense

coughed

past participle

coughed

present participle

coughing

third person singular

coughs