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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
cough
I.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a cold/cough/flu remedy
▪ Most cold remedies have little effect.
cough mixture
coughing and spluttering
▪ Bill started coughing and spluttering.
coughing fit
▪ He had a violent coughing fit.
hacking cough
smoker’s cough (=a cough caused by smoking cigarettes regularly)
▪ He had a smoker’s cough.
whooping cough
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
again
▪ The man in the attic was coughing again.
▪ While we stood together, praying, he began to cough again.
▪ Then it coughed and threw up before starting to cough again.
▪ She coughed again and looked reproachfully at Kathleen.
up
▪ The humans doubled up coughing as it invaded their lungs.
▪ We waded ashore coughing up salt water and drenched to the skin.
▪ Teal Green was coughing up a lungful of smoke when the Base was plunged into darkness.
▪ Years later, the earth would still cough up shoes, bits of clothing and bones.
▪ Elsewhere, we were expected to cough up to watch pop pygmies mime to their latest singles.
▪ My voice is like sandpaper, I cough up gobs of phlegm, my liver feels like a sandbag.
▪ I suppose taxpayers will have to cough up again.
▪ However, if your child starts coughing up large amounts of blood, you should treat the situation as an emergency.
■ NOUN
blood
▪ Tipperary, was taken to hospital coughing blood.
▪ Q: My 8-year-old daughter has been coughing up blood.
▪ Doctors were first alerted on May 21, when the man, a junior paediatrician, began to cough up blood.
▪ He was coughing up blood and refusing the doctor.
▪ The villagers who took him in say he had a lung disease, coughing up blood as he died.
fit
▪ Fidel would be seized by cramps, vomiting and fits of coughing, just like the long-tailed primates, and horribly die.
▪ He felt immeasurably sad for Dooley Russell held his hat over his mouth as another fit of coughing overcame him.
▪ Cyril raised his arm to the waitress, an action that sent him off into a fit of coughing.
■ VERB
begin
▪ He began to cough in rasping barks that became horribly convulsive before eventually subsiding.
▪ The defense attorney, in the midst of arguing his motion, suddenly began gagging an coughing.
▪ While we stood together, praying, he began to cough again.
▪ He took such a long puff on his cigarette that he began to cough, his throat burning.
▪ Doctors were first alerted on May 21, when the man, a junior paediatrician, began to cough up blood.
▪ He begins to cough and feels depression all over him.
▪ By the time the towers of his parents' manor house appeared, the rider leading the way had begun to cough.
▪ The boy could not breathe in the choking air and began coughing and panicking.
start
▪ Then he started to cough, forced himself to control the tickle he felt at the back of his throat.
▪ Dust began to scratch at my throat and I started to cough.
▪ He fell back, and started coughing so badly that even I was frightened.
▪ Water began dripping into the window, the port engine started to cough.
▪ Then it coughed and threw up before starting to cough again.
▪ However, if your child starts coughing up large amounts of blood, you should treat the situation as an emergency.
▪ At one point, he started coughing and I shouted at him to be quiet.
▪ She starts to cough and there's faintly green foam around her mouth.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
appetite/cough/pain etc suppressant
▪ It was designed for use as an appetite suppressant, to be taken along with a certain pill.
dry cough
▪ A short dry cough, may be a little watery mucus, possibly blood streaked.
▪ Copious, thick, ropy mucus from the larynx; hoarseness, rough voice, dry cough.
▪ Hard, dry cough racks the whole chest.
▪ I was already coughing a dry cough.
▪ Thick, yellow, offensive ear discharges with loss of hearing and dry cough.
▪ Usually loose but sometimes can be a dry cough.
spasm of grief/laughter/coughing etc
▪ A spasm of coughing woke him.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ I've been coughing and sneezing all day.
▪ The old car coughed and sputtered before starting.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Hugh seemed too weary to cough.
▪ In the morning, Belle had a temperature and by night, she was coughing without stopping.
▪ Is the pain worsened by straining or coughing?
▪ She heard him catch at air, and cough up the last slime of the river.
▪ The patient may need assistance to cough.
▪ Then he simply extends the arrow to full length once more while appearing to cough the whole thing up again.
II.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
dry
▪ Copious, thick, ropy mucus from the larynx; hoarseness, rough voice, dry cough.
▪ I was already coughing a dry cough.
▪ There may be a loose cough in the day and a dry paroxysmal cough in the evening and night.
▪ I have this little dry hacking cough.
▪ A tickling, dry, hard cough; great soreness in the chest on coughing or deep breathing.
▪ Thick, yellow, offensive ear discharges with loss of hearing and dry cough.
▪ Hard, dry cough racks the whole chest.
▪ Usually loose but sometimes can be a dry cough.
persistent
▪ The commonest symptom is a persistent cough, with frequent bouts of chest infection.
▪ They are being urged to see their own doctors if they develop symptoms such as a persistent cough, sweating or weight loss.
▪ These may include night sweats, swollen glands, weight loss or a persistent cough.
■ NOUN
medicine
▪ She was a big, soft, loving woman with endless energy, who smelt of cough medicine and laundry.
▪ This old lady came out and said about the cough - she gave me a dose of cough medicine.
▪ Sticky bottles of cough medicine lined his bathroom shelf.
mixture
▪ He had taken a bottle of cough mixture with him but it hadn't helped much.
▪ I discovered to my surprise that even certain cough mixtures are banned.
syrup
▪ He coughed so badly that he found his way to the bathroom and took some Liquafruta cough syrup.
whooping
▪ On the ship I caught whooping cough.
▪ The vaccine can be given at the same time as immunisations against diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus.
▪ Bloody sputum. Whooping cough may be like this or even asthma.
▪ Calpol can now be given to babies developing a feverish reaction after triple immunisations against whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus.
▪ Daughter Helen, 25, needed constant attention after whooping cough left her with a mental age of just two.
▪ They were the victims of whooping cough.
■ VERB
give
▪ The chauffeur gave a discreet cough.
▪ We all knew they gave you a wracking cough.
▪ And there were other things; saliva drooled from her lips and every few seconds she gave a retching cough.
▪ At length, he gave a little cough.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Disease can be spread by coughs.
▪ I find honey is the best thing for a cough.
▪ Ms. Meyers has this hacking smoker's cough.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Four months after the show opened in October 1995, she missed 10 performances because of a sore throat and cough.
▪ He was about to kiss her again when he heard a discreet cough.
▪ Rye whiskey, mixed with rock-sugar syrup, remained a popular cough remedy into the early twentieth century.
▪ That cough of hers worries me; she's had it for weeks.
▪ The juggernaut started with a cough and splutter, was thrown into gear and began to move off down the narrow road.
▪ Then a little move, a little cough, made you aware of his presence.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cough

Cough \Cough\ (k?f), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Coughed (k?ft); p. pr. & vb. n. Coughing.] [Cf. D. kuchen, MHG. k?chen to breathe, G. keuchen to pant, and E. chincough, the first part of which is prob. akin to cough; cf. also E. choke.] To expel air, or obstructing or irritating matter, from the lungs or air passages, in a noisy and violent manner.

Cough

Cough \Cough\, v. t.

  1. To expel from the lungs or air passages by coughing; -- followed by up; as, to cough up phlegm.

  2. To bring to a specified state by coughing; as, he coughed himself hoarse.

    To cough down, to silence or put down (an objectionable speaker) by simulated coughing.

Cough

Cough \Cough\, n. [Cg. D. kuch. See Cough, v. i. ]

  1. A sudden, noisy, and violent expulsion of air from the chest, caused by irritation in the air passages, or by the reflex action of nervous or gastric disorder, etc.

  2. The more or less frequent repetition of coughing, constituting a symptom of disease.

    Stomach cough, Ear cough, cough due to irritation in the stomach or ear.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
cough

early 14c., coughen, probably in Old English, but not recorded, from Proto-Germanic *kokh- (with the rough "kh" of German or of Scottish loch; cognates: Middle Dutch kochen, Middle High German kuchen). Onomatopoeic. Related: Coughed; coughing. As a noun from c.1300.

Wiktionary
cough

n. 1 A sudden, usually noisy expulsion of air from the lungs, often involuntary. 2 A condition that causes one to cough; a tendency to cough. 3 (non-gloss definition lang=en Used to focus attention on a following utterance, often a euphemism or an attribution of blame) vb. To push air from the lungs in a quick, noisy explosion.

WordNet
cough
  1. n. sudden expulsion of air from the lungs that clears the air passages; a common symptom of upper respiratory infection or bronchitis or pneumonia or tuberculosis [syn: coughing]

  2. the act of exhaling air suddenly with a noise [syn: coughing]

cough

v. exhale abruptly, as when one has a chest cold or congestion; "The smoker coughs all day"

Wikipedia
Cough

A cough is a sudden and often repetitively occurring reflex which helps to clear the large breathing passages from secretions, irritants, foreign particles and microbes. The cough reflex consists of three phases: an inhalation, a forced exhalation against a closed glottis, and a violent release of air from the lungs following opening of the glottis, usually accompanied by a distinctive sound. Coughing is either voluntary or involuntary.

Frequent coughing usually indicates the presence of a disease. Many viruses and bacteria benefit evolutionarily by causing the host to cough, which helps to spread the disease to new hosts. Most of the time, irregular coughing is caused by a respiratory tract infection but can also be triggered by choking, smoking, air pollution, asthma, gastroesophageal reflux disease, post-nasal drip, chronic bronchitis, lung tumors, heart failure and medications such as ACE inhibitors.

Treatment should target the cause; for example, smoking cessation or discontinuing ACE inhibitors. Cough suppressants such as codeine or dextromethorphan are frequently prescribed, but have been demonstrated to have little effect. Other treatment options may target airway inflammation or may promote mucus expectoration. As it is a natural protective reflex, suppressing the cough reflex might have damaging effects, especially if the cough is productive.

Usage examples of "cough".

It causes tickling and frequent desire to clear the throat, change, weakness, or entire loss of voice, and difficulty of breathing, frequently giving rise to the most persistent and aggravating cough.

It causes tickling and frequent desire to clear the throat, also change, weakness and loss of voice, and often gives rise to a very persistent and aggravating cough.

Then the memory passed and Alman, weak from privations and older than his years, hunched in on himself in a series of racking coughs.

Then the memory passed and Alman, weak from privations and older than his years, hunched in on himself in a series of wracking coughs.

When the whale is ill, the ambergris is formed--I suppose you could say it is no more complicated than the process by which phlegm is formed in your throat when you have a cold, and the whale coughs it up, or spews it out in the form of a liquid which hardens on exposure to the air.

Mac Ard, after hearing the first few notes, sat back in his chair with an audible cough of surprise and admiration, shaking his head and stroking his beard.

The little concierge stepped from behind an enormous potted aspidistra and coughed softly into his fist.

Brother Peter coughed, Aumery succumbed to a fit of snorting laughter.

Rawnie coughed again, her body shaking, her bangles tinkling and jangling.

An elderly mouselike man who was drinking at the bar beside him coughed apologetically and edged bashfully nearer.

Abruptly she tilted lifted the cup to her mouth unsteadily and gulped the contents, choking and coughing, then thrust it out toward Bayle for more.

Well, two days ago, my dear friend begged the abbess and my aunt to allow me to sleep in her room in the place of the lay-sister, who, having a very bad cold, had carried her cough to the infirmary.

There, in that moribund, ancient town, wrapped in its siesta, flagellated with heat, deserted, ignored, baking in a noon-day silence, these two strange men, the one a poet by nature, the other by training, both out of tune with their world, dreamers, introspective, morbid, lost and unfamiliar at that end-of-the-century time, searching for a sign, groping and baffled amidst the perplexing obscurity of the Delusion, sat over empty wine glasses, silent with the pervading silence that surrounded them, hearing only the cooing of doves and the drone of bees, the quiet so profound, that at length they could plainly distinguish at intervals the puffing and coughing of a locomotive switching cars in the station yard of Bonneville.

He coughed to cover the copy completion bleep, then palmed the disk, slipping it into the trashcan by the door as the janitor moved into Processing to sweep.

Mr Ibbs cooks bloaters, while his sister screams, while Gentleman coughs in his bed, while Mrs Sucksby turns in hers, and snores, and sighs.