| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| cough |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  kôf, k f |
| VERB: | Inflected forms: coughed, cough·ing, coughs
| | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To expel air from the lungs suddenly and noisily, often to keep the respiratory passages free of irritating material. 2. To make a noise similar to noisy expulsion of air from the lungs: The engine coughed and died. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | To expel by coughing: coughed up phlegm. | | NOUN: | 1. The act of coughing. 2. An illness marked by frequent coughing. | | PHRASAL VERB: | cough up Slang 1. To hand over or relinquish (money or another possession), often reluctantly. 2. To confess or disclose: When he saw that the police might arrest him, he coughed up the details of what he had seen. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English coughen, ultimately of imitative origin.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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