cough
/kɔf/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.95 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
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.
Transitive verb
verb
To cause (oneself or something) to be in a certain condition in the manner described in etymology 1 sense 1.1.
Transitive verb
verb
Chiefly followed by up: to give up or hand over (something); especially, to pay up (money).
Slang; Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "Sometimes she coughed up blood."
- "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."
- "He almost coughed himself into a fit."
- "No ſtationary ſteeds / Cough their ovvn knell, vvhile heedleſs of the ſound / The ſilent circle fan themſelves, and quake."
- "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."
- "Thanks to Jeeves I was not going to be called on to cough up several thousand quid."
Etymology
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”)
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /kɔf/
- British English: /kɒf/
Usage
Inflected Forms
coughs (present, singular)
coughing (participle, present)
coughed (participle, past)
coughed (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
coughed (first person, past)
coughest (archaic, present)
coughed (past, second person)
coughedst (archaic, past)
cougheth (archaic, present)
coughed (past, singular)