phlegm
- noun
- /flɛm/
- Many smokers develop an early morning cough to clear the phlegm produced overnight.
But the medical science at that time was still the four humors theory that people were made of yellow bile, black bile, blood and phlegm.
- But the medical science at that time was still the four humors theory that people were made of yellow bile, black bile, blood and phlegm.
- I think you dirty, dirty fucker, that's phlegm.
- And then if you've got a lot of phlegm and mucus, sage is powerful as well.
- I wanted to make sure you got the cheesecakes I sent over, because nothing deals with phlegm like a thick New York junior's cheesecake.
Examples
-
Get all the phlegm and mucus down.
-
I've got a lot of phlegm, and I'm burning up.
-
l got a little phlegm there.
-
Sounds like a wet cough, like phlegm.
-
That'll draw the phlegm right out of them.
-
Do you bring up phlegm or mucus?
Academic text (2014) -
Another neighbor was clearing years of phlegm from his throat.
Fiction book (2002) -
So it's kind of hard to play when you're coughing and have all this phlegm and just not feeling too good.
Fiction book (1999) -
Of course, when someone gets sick, also there can be more of the sort of mucus and phlegm that's generated to help the body deal with the pathogen.
-
The doctor advised her to drink warm fluids to help thin the phlegm in her throat.
Synonyms
A thick, sticky liquid made in the nose, throat, and gut that protects and moistens them
Mucus and saliva that you cough up from your chest, often tested for infections
A thick piece of spit that you cough up and spit out
Antonyms
How Thick
Surface Forms
Etymology
Phlegm comes from the Greek words phlegma and phlegein, which mean 'inflammation' and 'to burn'. Because old medicine linked this heat and body fluids together, phlegm now means the thick, sticky liquid your body makes in the throat or chest when you are ill.