cough

CEFRB1

/kɒf/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To force air from the throat with a sudden sound.

  2. 02

    noun

    A sudden sound made when air is forced from the throat.

Examples

  • You should buy some cough medicine and aspirin.

  • You'd better see a doctor about that cough.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

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

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

  3. 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.

More examples

In context

  • Do you have any cough medicine?

  • He almost coughed himself into a fit.

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

Synonyms

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Nearby

Origin

verb

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”)