wheeze
/ʍiːz/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.40 in modern English
21
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To breathe hard, and with an audible piping or whistling sound, as persons affected with asthma.
Example Sentences
- "If the air smelled even faintly of dog, Lionel coughed, wheezed and sneezed."
- "Mrs. Hearty began to shake and wheeze with laughter, and Millie stood looking at Bindle."
- "He began to wheeze again, and tears rolled down his furrowed cheeks. Nate was laughing, too, infected by Check's contagious wheezing."
- "Elsie wheezed, laughter swelling her bosom."
- "The man wheezed, his laughter like an accordion whine."
- ""Even the fish know it; they don't rise to the bait any more and the birds are scared - hear how they wheeze and cry as they seek the land.""
Etymology
From Middle English whesen, perhaps from Old Norse hvæsa (“to hiss”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwes- (“to pant”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: whesen, hvæsa, *ḱwes-