wheeze

== English == === Etymology === From Middle English whesen, perhaps from Old Norse hvæsa (“to hiss”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwes- (“to pant”). === Pronunciation === enPR: wēz, IPA(key): /ʍiːz/, /wiːz/ Rhymes: -iːz Homophones: wees, we's, Wiis (wine–whine merger) === Verb === wheeze (third-person singular simple present wheezes, present participle wheezing, simple past and past participle wheezed) To breathe hard, and with an audible piping or whistling sound, as persons affected with asthma. 2001, Joyce Carol Oates, Middle Age: A Romance (Fourth Estate, paperback edition, 443) If the air smelled even faintly of dog, Lionel coughed, wheezed and sneezed. (slang) To convulse with laughter; to become breathless due to intense laughing. To make a sound that resembles the sound of human wheezing. ==== Translations ==== === Noun === wheeze (plural wheezes) A piping or whistling sound caused by difficult respiration. An ordinary whisper exaggerated so as to produce the hoarse sound known as the "stage whisper"; a forcible whisper with some admixture of tone. (UK, Ireland, informal) An ulterior scheme or plan. (slang) Something very humorous or laughable. Synonyms: see Thesaurus:joke A sound that resembles a human wheezing. ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Translations ==== === References === “wheeze”, in OneLook Dictionary Search. William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “wheeze”, in The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC. “wheeze n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present.