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to wheeze

to wheeze

19 5.1
To breathe with a high, whistling sound because the airways are tight
  • verb
  • /wiːz/
translation icon : respirar con sibilancias
  • Did he wheeze when he breathed?
  • coughing and wheezing
  • gasp and wheeze
  • sneezing and wheezing

Examples

  • It got so bad, every day, you were wheezing, coughing.

  • "Have you been on a boat before?" asked Denzil, wheezing painfully as he lit another cigarette.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • Can't wheeze without moving your chest muscles.

  • So it says, when the surgery ended, the subject looked at the surgeon and began to wheeze loudly, attempting to talk while struggling.

  • My father emerged from the closet and staggered, wheezing, from the room.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • I always wheeze, Liz.

  • Stop wheezing.

  • Then, as if she'd exhausted that subject, she nodded off to sleep, wheezing lightly.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • Cranked at three-quarters, Fuzzy sits in bed, wheezing and coughing.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • After running for several minutes, he started to wheeze and had difficulty catching his breath.

Synonyms

wheezing
vsto wheeze
6.1

A high whistling or rough sound that you make when breathing is hard

has identical meaning but appears as the base action verb form

How Breathless

dyspnea
  • Specialized
3 9.8
to wheeze
19 5.1
gasp
312 1.8
pant
5 2.0
to breathe
1.0

Surface Forms

wheeze infinitive
wheeze past
wheeze past participle
wheezing present participle
wheezes third person singular

Etymology

Wheeze comes from the same idea: making the sound whee while you 'breathe' hard. So to wheeze is to 'breathe' with difficulty and make a noisy, whistling or rattling sound.