Cough Meaning

/kɒf/
B1

Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

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verbSometimes 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.

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

Do you have any cough medicine?
You should buy some cough medicine and aspirin.
You'd better see a doctor about that cough.
CEFR Practice Quiz
He had a bad ____ that kept him awake all night.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Do you have any ____ medicine?

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”)

"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." — 1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “The Great Sermon Handicap”, in The Inimitable Jeeves, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1979, →ISBN, page 139:
"No ſtationary ſteeds / Cough their ovvn knell, vvhile heedleſs of the ſound / The ſilent circle fan themſelves, and quake." — 1785, William Cowper, “Book IV. The Winter Evening.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, pages 144–145:
"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." — 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:
"Thanks to Jeeves I was not going to be called on to cough up several thousand quid." — 1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, The Inimitable Jeeves, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC, page 40:
""Parsloe, will you or will you not cough up that pig?" / "I have not got your pig."" — 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:

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CEFR Practice Quiz
He had a bad ____ that kept him awake all night.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Do you have any ____ medicine?

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