to cough out
1
4.1
- phrasal verb
- /kɔf aʊt/
:
expulsar
- Grateful for the clean air, coughing out sour fumes from his soiled lungs, Jim looked for Christine Dubrovek among the people in the field.
- cough out water
Examples
-
Clinging to him, coughing out the last of the smoke, she began to ask for her mother in a fearful tone of voice that indicated she expected the worst.
Fiction book (1991) -
He stands and coughs out a mouthful of the rancid water.
Fiction book (1992) -
And then maybe later, provided my eggs aren't dust, we'll see what I can cough out.
Blog text (22) -
Next time he surfaced, he coughed out a Key West rumor:
Fiction book (1990) -
When the wave tossed him back up, he coughed out the water and whispered the line in the ancient language, the line he did not know he remembered.
Fiction book (2002) -
Nathan doesn't know how to explain, so he bends over and starts to cough out little sobs.
Fiction book (2002) -
But my grandfather, who hardly ever says a word because words make him cough so much that one thinks death might take him in the midst of it, coughs out, "Estas loca," while my grandmother, Gorda, Victor, and I stand around him, holding our breath, waiting to see if today is the day he's going to die.
Fiction book (2002) -
After the cold set in, he had to cough out thick phlegm every morning.
-
She felt a tickle in her throat and couldn't help but cough out the sputum.
-
The doctor asked him to cough out anything blocking his airways during the check-up.
Synonyms
94
2.3
To push food or drink out of your mouth
15
5.9
To force out large amounts of something like smoke or words
8
4.6
To bring mucus or blood up from the lungs into the mouth
1
4.1
To push food, milk, or phlegm out of the mouth
1
6.5
To spit out saliva, phlegm, or mucus from your mouth
1
9.9
To cough up and spit out mucus from the throat or lungs
1
9.9
To force something out of the mouth, like saliva or vomit
Antonyms
How Forceful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to expel phlegm by coughing' is directly compositional from 'cough' (to force air/contents out of the throat) plus the particle 'out' (indicating outward movement). This outward-motion/result interpretation follows a common verb+particle pattern and would be predictable to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
The phrasal verb cough out comes from a simple picture: you cough and push something out of your mouth from the chest. That's why it means 'to expel phlegm or mucus from the lungs'.