Added 4 October 2026

cough

/kɒf/ verb

In Latin: tussiō Wiktionary

verb Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about cough at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

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.
Sometimes she coughed up blood.
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.
Sometimes she coughed up blood.
To cause (oneself or something) to be in a certain condition in the manner described in etymology 1 sense 1.1.
He almost coughed himself into a fit.

A sudden, often involuntary expulsion of air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound), and out through the mouth.
Behind me, I heard a distinct, dry cough.
A bout of repeated coughing (verb etymology 1 sense 2.1); also, a medical condition that causes one to cough.
:
A noise or sound like a cough (etymology 2, noun sense 1).

Used to represent the sound of a cough (noun sense 1), especially when focusing attention on a following utterance, often an attribution of blame or a euphemism: ahem.
He was—cough—indisposed.

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”)