From Middle Englishcoughen, coghen(“to cough; to vomit”)[and other forms], from Old English*cohhian (compare Old Englishcohhetan(“to bluster; to riot; to cough (?)”)), from Proto-West Germanic*kuh-(“to cough”), ultimately of onomatopoeic origin.[1]
Cognates
Middle Dutchcuchen(“to cough”) (modern Dutchkuchen(“to cough”); German Low Germankuchen(“to cough”))
Middle High Germankûchen(“to breathe (on); to exhale”), kîchen(“to breathe with difficulty”) (modern Germankeichen, keuchen(“to breathe with difficulty; to gasp, pant”))
Spanishcof(“coughing sound”)
West Frisiankiche(“to cough”), kochelje(“to cough persistently”)
Verb
[edit]
cough (third-person singular simple present coughs, present participle coughing, simple past and past participle coughed)
(transitive, medicine)
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.
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: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.
To cause (oneself or something) to be in a certain condition in the manner described in sense 1.1. He almost coughed himself into a fit.
To express (words, etc.) in the manner described in sense 1.1.
1785, William Cowper, “Book IV. The Winter Evening.”, in The Task, a Poem,[…], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, pages 144–145:No ſtationary ſteeds / Cough their ovvn knell, vvhile heedleſs of the ſound / The ſilent circle fan themſelves, and quake.
(figurative)
To surrender (information); to confess.
(originally US, slang)Chiefly followed by up: to give up or hand over (something); especially, to pay up (money).
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: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.
1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “Pearls Mean Tears”, in The Inimitable Jeeves, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1979, →ISBN, page 40:Thanks to Jeeves I was not going to be called on to cough up several thousand quid.
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:"Parsloe, will you or will you not cough up that pig?" / "I have not got your pig."
(intransitive)
To push air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound) and out through the mouth, usually to expel something blocking or irritating the airway. I breathed in a lungful of smoke by mistake, and started to cough.
1577, Martial, “Epigrammes out of Martial. [To Parthenope.]”, in Timothe Kendall, transl., Flowers of Epigrammes[…], [Manchester]: […][Charles Simms] for the Spenser Society, published 1874, →OCLC, pages 56–57:Yet notwithſtandyng all this geare, / thou cougheſt ſtill, perdy / Ye are a craftie knaue, you cough / to fare deliciouſly.
c.1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice.[…] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley,[…], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 70:Leave procreants alone, and ſhut the dore, / Coffe, or cry hem, if any body come, […]
1828 May 15, [Walter Scott], chapter X, in Chronicles of the Canongate. Second Series.[…] (The Fair Maid of Perth), volume III, Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, page 259:"Did your lordship's servant see Simon Glover and his daughter?" said Henry, struggling for breath, and coughing, to conceal from the Provost the excess of his agitation.
1835 January 23 (date written), Frederic James Post, “A Discourse Touching Rides and Riding”, in Extracts from the Diary and Other Manuscripts of the Late Frederic James Post, of Islington.[…], London: […][James Moyes] for private circulation, published 1838, →OCLC, pages 331–332:But often, when thy face [i.e., that of a horse] is turned from the stable, thou hast an unaccountable desire to place it in the position occupied by thy tail: thou stoppest, coughest, shyest, and erst, with swift detorsion, turnest round, then, with sidelong glance of my magic caduceus, ominously wagging between the horizon and thy ample sides, I incite thee on, but rarely does thy pace more than trot, from home.
[[1840], A[ngelo] Renzi, “Verbi. Verbes. Verbs.”, in Le polyglotte improvisé, ou l’art d’écrire les langues sans les appendre.[…] [The Improvised Polyglot, or The Art of Writing Languages without Learning Them.[…]], Paris: Chez l‘auteur,[…]; Chez Baudry,[…], et Chez les Principaux Libraries, →OCLC, page 498:Tossivi / Tu tossais / Thou coughedst]
1869 May, Anthony Trollope, “Trevelyan Discourses on Life”, in He Knew He Was Right, volume II, London: Strahan and Company,[…], →OCLC, page 336:After this he fell a-coughing violently, and Stanbury thought it better to leave him.
1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 246:"But it is unfortunate—you find me at the moment—" and he stopped short and coughed.
1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:I drew a deep breath, and a moment later wished I hadn't, because I drew it while drinking the remains of my gin and tonic. “Does Kipper know of this?“ I said, when I had finished coughing.
To make a noise like a cough. The engine coughed and sputtered.
1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XIX, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade)[…], London: Chatto & Windus,[…], →OCLC, pages 169–170:Wake up, by-and-by, and look to see what done it, and maybe see a steamboat, coughing along up stream, so far off towards the other side you couldn't tell nothing about her only whether she was stern-wheel or side-wheel; then for about an hour there wouldn't be nothing to hear nor nothing to see—just solid lonesomeness.
(originally US, slang) To surrender information; to confess, to spill the beans.
Conjugation
[edit]
Conjugation of cough
infinitive
(to) cough
present tense
past tense
1st-person singular
cough
coughed
2nd-person singular
cough, coughest†
coughed, coughedst†
3rd-person singular
coughs, cougheth†
coughed
plural
cough
subjunctive
cough
coughed
imperative
cough
—
participles
coughing
coughed
† Archaic or obsolete.
Derived terms
[edit]
cough down
cougher
coughing(noun)
coughingly
cough out
cough over
cough up
Translations
[edit] 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
to cause (oneself or something) to be in a certain condition in the manner specified in sense 1.1
Finnish: yskiä (fi)
Gagauz: üüsürää
Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
Ottoman Turkish: اوكسورمك(öksürmek)
to express (words, etc.) in the manner specified in sense 1.1
Finnish: kakaista
Gagauz: üüsürää
Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
Ottoman Turkish: اوكسورمك(öksürmek)
(transitive) to surrender (information); (intransitive) to surrender information — see confess to give up or hand over (something) — see give up, hand over to pay up (money) — see pay up to push air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound) and out through the mouth
West Coast Bajau: please add this translation if you can
Wolof: please add this translation if you can
Yámana: please add this translation if you can
Yiddish: please add this translation if you can
Yucatec Maya: please add this translation if you can
Yup'ik: please add this translation if you can
Zazaki: fıren
Zhuang: please add this translation if you can
Zulu: please add this translation if you can
Etymology 2
[edit]
The noun is derived from Middle Englishcough(“a cough; illness causing coughing”)[and other forms],[2] from coughen(verb): see etymology 1.[3]
The interjection is probably derived from the noun.
Noun
[edit]
cough (plural coughs)
Example
Audio:
(file)
A series of three coughs (noun sense 1).
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.
1640, John Parkinson, “Cyperus dulcis rotundus esculentus, Trasi dulce vocatus. The Most Delicate Sweet Cyperus, or Rush Nut.”, in Theatrum Botanicum: The Theater of Plants. Or, An Herball of a Large Extent:[…], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, →OCLC, page 148:[I]t conduceth helpe to the crudities, humidities, and vvindineſſe of the ſtomacke and belly, and to helpe the ſhortneſſe of breath and coughes: […]
1709, Alexander Pope, “January and May; or, The Merchant’s Tale, from Chaucer”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot,[…], published 1717, →OCLC, page 223:The lumpiſh husband ſnoar'd avvay the night, / Till coughs avvak'd him near the morning light.
1828 May 15, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in Chronicles of the Canongate. Second Series.[…] (The Fair Maid of Perth), volume III, Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, page 12:Dwining ventured to give a low cough once or twice, by way of signal; […]
1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 26:One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.” He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis and another boy interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.An attributive use.
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: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.
A bout of repeated coughing (verb sense 2.1); also, a medical condition that causes one to cough. (medical condition):Synonym:tussiswhooping coughSorry, I can’t come to work today—I’ve got a nasty cough.
c.1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth,[…], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:[John] Fal[staff]. VVhat diſeaſe haſt thou? / [Peter] Bul[lcaff]. A horſon cold ſir, a cough ſir, vvhich I cought vvith ringing in the Kings affaires vpon his coronation day ſir.
1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “Foreshadowings”, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume II, Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC, page 81:Cough! you don't need to tell me about a cough. I've always been subject to a cough, all my days. […] O! Eva's cough is not anything.
(figurative) A noise or sound like a cough (sense 1).
A vocalisation from a bird or other animal resembling a human cough.
Hyponyms
[edit]
anticough
barking cough
bitonal cough
blood cough
chesty cough
chin cough
chink cough
choking cough
churchyard cough
congested cough
coughless
coughwort
croupy cough
dry cough
effective cough
habit cough
hacking cough
hooping cough, whooping cough
kennel cough
Khumbu cough
lingering cough
loose cough
miner's cough
nasty cough
nervous cough
non-productive cough
obstinate cough
paroxysmal cough
persistent cough
productive cough
retching cough
single cough
smoker's cough
snough
spasmodic cough
spicy cough
staccato cough
tickling cough
tickly cough
tooth cough
tracheal cough
trouser cough
vampire cough
wet cough
Derived terms
[edit]
cough and a spit
cough attack
cough button
cough candy
cough capsule
cough drop
cough drug
cough expectorant
cough fracture
cough impulse
cough linctus
cough lolly
cough lozenge
cough medicine
cough mixture
cough muscle
cough pill
cough preparation
cough reflex
cough reliever
cough remedy
cough suppressant
cough sweet
cough syncope
cough syrup
cough tablet
cough tea
cough test
coughy
hiccough
Holocough
soften someone's cough
upper airway cough syndrome
Translations
[edit] sudden, often involuntary expulsion of air from the lungs through the glottis, and out through the mouth
Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations. Translations to be checked
Gujarati: (please verify) ઉધરસ (gu)(udharas)
Marathi: (please verify) खोकला?(khoklā)
Woiwurrung: (please verify) koonin-goon
Interjection
[edit]
cough
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.
Translations
[edit]used to represent the sound of a cough
Finnish: köh (fi)
Lithuanian: kchè
Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
Swedish: host (sv)
References
[edit]
^ “cough, v.1”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “cough, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
^ “cough, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
^ Compare “cough, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “cough, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Further reading
[edit]
cough on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams
[edit]
gouch
Middle English
[edit]
Alternative forms
[edit]
cogh, couwe, coght, couth
Etymology
[edit]
From coughen.
Pronunciation
[edit]
IPA(key): /kɔu̯x/, /kɔx/, /kɔu̯/
Noun
[edit]
cough (uncountable)
coughing
Descendants
[edit]
English: cough
Yola: keough
References
[edit]
“cough, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “cough, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. 
cough on Wikipedia.Wikipedia 