Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
hacking cough
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A hacking cough from the porch heralded the arrival of Nancy Little and the Doctor.
▪ And I looked, dry hacking cough and head congestion.
▪ Arriving there, he moved from flophouse to flophouse because none of his fellow tenants could endure his hacking cough.
▪ Dry, teasing, hacking cough with a sense of suffocation.
▪ I have this little dry hacking cough.
▪ Whether or not we will shortly have a passive computer lobby, it certainly gives a new meaning to the hacking cough.
Usage examples of "hacking cough".
At once Crosse coughed Arthur's dry hacking cough and spoke in a perfect imitation of Arthur's voice.
The symptoms, a fever, headache, lack of appetite, the dry hacking cough-are unusually severe and do not respond to any of the commonly effective treatments.