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▪ I. cough, n.|kɒf, -ɔː-| Forms: 4 couhe, cowȝe, couȝe, 4–6 coughe, 5 cogh(e, caughe, koghwhe, 6 cowgh(e, 5– cough. [f. cough v.: cf. laugh.] 1. The affection of coughing at short intervals, lasting for a longer or shorter period of time; a diseased condition of the respiratory organs manifesting itself in fits of coughing. The affection was down to 1600 usually called the cough (cf. the measles, the cholera, etc.); now in medical language simply cough; a cough is a specific attack, whether of definite duration or chronic, or a particular kind, as ‘a hollow cough’, ‘a churchyard cough’.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xx. 81 Coughes [C. couhes] and cardiacles, crampes, and tothaches. c1386Chaucer Merch. T. 713 [He] slepith, til that the coughe hath him awaked. c1400Lanfranc's Cirurg. 308 Passiouns of þe eeren, & of þe noseþrillis, & cold couȝe. a1400Chester Pl. (Shaks. Soc.) I. 119 Yf the caughe had them caughte, Of yt I coulde them heale. 1527Andrew Brunswyke's Distill. Waters A j b, The same water dronken..at mornynge and at nyght..helpeth them that have the cowghe. 1581Mulcaster Positions xii. (1887) 61 It is also good for the drie cowghe. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iii. ii. 193 Fal. What disease hast thou? Bul. A whorson cold sir, a cough sir. 1704F. Fuller Med. Gymn. Pref., It is in our Choice, whether a Cough shall run on to a Consumption. 1740–1Swift Lett. to Mrs. Whiteway 13 Jan., My cold is now attended with a cough. 1744Berkeley Siris §21 An excellent medicine for coughs. 1845Budd Dis. Liver 247 He was affected with cough and dyspnœa. 1850Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xxiv, ‘But she has a cough’. ‘Cough!..I've always been subject to a cough’. 1854[see cougher]. 2. a. A single act of coughing; a violent expulsion of air from the lungs with the characteristic noise.
1742West Let. in Gray's Poems (1775) 136, It will go on, cough after cough..for half an hour together. 1828Scott F.M. Perth xxiv, Dwining ventured to give a low cough..by way of signal. 1872Huxley Phys. iv. 94 A violent contraction of the expiratory muscles, producing a cough. b. The sound of a bullet or shell being fired or bursting. colloq.
1928Blunden Undertones of War ii. 20 The..cough of anti-aircraft shells. 1934V. M. Yeates Winged Victory i. ii. 20 A loud double cough made his heart jump. It was Archie taking notice of them, and his first shots were always startling. 1969Listener 12 June 813/3 The cough of mortars (everyone calls it a ‘cough’) and the clatter of sub-machine-guns. 3. attrib. and Comb., as cough-drop, -lozenge, (a) a ‘drop’ or lozenge taken to cure or alleviate a cough; (b) slang, a pungent or disagreeable person or thing; a ‘caution’ (see caution n. 3 d); cough medicine, mixture, a medicinal concoction for the alleviation of a cough; coughwort, a name proposed by Gerarde for the Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara).
1851Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 3/1 Vendors of..sweetmeats, brandy-balls, cough-drops. 1895Referee 21 July 7/3 ‘Honest John Burns’,..who would have benefited considerably had his constituents given him a holiday, objects to being called ‘a cough drop’. c1895Comic Song, She looks as if she could curl your hair, Oh you've got a nice little cough drop there. 1897W. S. Maugham Liza of Lambeth iv. 46 You are a coughdrop—..Ketch me refusin' when I 'ave the chanst. 1908Daily Chron. 3 June 1/6 Strike me lucky, it was a corf-drop, it was, an' no mistike! Ibid. 10 Aug. 7/4 Didn't I tell you, sir, that she was a cough-drop? 1929J. B. Priestley Good Compan. ii. i. 267 ‘Yond's a coughdrop,’ he announced to the room at large.
a1893Mod. Clear your throat with a cough-lozenge.
1828Bk. of Health 105/1 Major Coccrane's Cough Medicine. 1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. li. 586 He had been surprised to find his fresh supply of cough medicine in such a place. 1928E. O'Neill Strange Interlude ii. 61 Cough medicine for the corpse, perhaps!
1840C. J. B. Williams in A. Tweedie Syst. Pract. Med. III. 70 The frequent use of a cough mixture, to diminish irritation. 1922Joyce Ulysses 421 He's got a coughmixture with a punch in it. 1960D. V. Davis Domestic Encycl. 387 (heading) Cough mixture. A pleasant cough syrup, quite safe for children, can be made by mixing 5 oz. of honey with 4 oz. of treacle and ½ pint of vinegar.
1597Gerarde Herbal cclxxvii. §2. 667 Tussilago (which may also be Englished Coughwoort). ▪ II. cough, v.|kɒf, -ɔː-| Forms: 4 coȝ-, couȝ-, kouȝ-, couȝh-, couh-, couȝw-en, couwe, kow-, 4–5 cowȝ-, cowh-, cow-, 4– 6 cough-, cowgh-; 5 cogh-, koghe, cowff, 6 coughe, coegh, 6–7 coff(e, 6– cough. [ME. coȝ-, cogh-, cowh-en, answering to an unrecorded OE. *cohhian, represented by a deriv. cohhetan (app.) to cough; akin to MDu. cuchen, Mod.Du. and LG. kuchen to cough; cf. also MHG. kûchen to breathe (on), direct the breath, exhale, and MHG. kîchen to breathe with difficulty as in asthma, catch the breath (see chink, kink), mod.G. keuchen, keichen to pant, gasp, catch the breath, be short of breath. All these words appear to be of echoic origin, representing various sounds and actions made with the breath.] 1. a. intr. To expel the air from the lungs with a more or less violent effort and characteristic noise, produced by the abrupt forcible opening of the previously closed glottis; usually in order to remove something that obstructs or irritates the air-passages.
c1325Old Age 8 in E.E.P. (1862) 149, I clyng i cluche i croke i couwe. c1340Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 307 He coȝed ful hyȝe. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xiii. 100 Sone þis doctour..Coughed [v.r. couȝwede; C. xvi. 109 kowede] and carped. c1386Chaucer Miller's T. 511 (Harl. MS.) Softe he cowhiþ [v.r. coughed, cogheth, kougheþ, coude] with a semysoun. c1400Lanfranc's Cirurg. 165 Make him cowȝe & spitte out þe quytture. c1490Promp. Parv. 97 (MS. K) Cowyn or hostyn [H. cowhyn, P. cowghen], tussio, tussito. 1514Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.) 47 Neyther mayst thou rise, cough, spit, or neese. 1562J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 100, I neuer heard them coegh nor hem. 1604Shakes. Oth. iv. ii. 29 Cough, or cry hem; if any body come. 1828Scott F.M. Perth xxxiii, Coughing, to conceal from the Provost the excess of his agitation. 1846J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) II. 142 The herdsman should be aware of every beast that coughs. 1869Trollope He knew xcii. 513 He fell a-coughing violently. b. To confess; to give information (cf. sense 3 b). slang (orig. U.S.).
1901‘J. Flynt’ World of Graft 102 They put him in the sweat-box, and made him cough, an' you know the rest. 1962M. Procter Devil in Moonlight vi. 56 Would you cough with five thousand in the kitty, and nobody able to prove where you'd got it from? 1970W. J. Burley To Kill a Cat x. 175 Once he realized we had it on him he was ready to cough fast enough. c. To fire shells. Cf. cough n. 2 b.
1925Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words, Coughing Clara, a nickname for a heavy gun. 1934V. M Yeates Winged Victory i. ii. 21 It was not easy..to keep formation when Archie was coughing with black hate all the while. d. Of an engine, etc.: to make noise like coughing; to misfire.
1884‘Mark Twain’ Huck. Finn 178 A steamboat coughing along upstream. 1936E. S. Gardner Case of Stuttering Bishop (1937) vii. 111 A donkey engine coughed into rhythmic explosions. 1949J. R. Cole It was so Late 87 Then the engine coughed and picked up sharply as the throttle was slammed open. 1954D. & C. Christie Carrington V.C. in Plays of Yr. 563 Well, going up a hill like the side of a house, the car started to cough, then it stopped. 2. a. trans. To express or utter by coughing.
c1450Myrc 891 Koghe thow not thenne thy thonkes. 1784Cowper Task iv. 148 No stationary steeds Cough their own knell. b. To bring into a specified condition by coughing.
1837E. Howard Old Commodore I. ix. 293, I think I am the first naval officer who ever coughed himself into a commission. 1888Mrs. H. Ward R. Elsmere xxi, One of them..was sitting up..and coughing its little life away. 1904L. T. Meade Love Triumphant Prol. ii, He kept..coughing as though he would cough his life away. 3. a. With out, up. To eject or get rid of by coughing.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 205 Glotoun was a gret cherl..And cowhede vp a cawdel in clementis lappe. 1647Crashaw Poems 125 This last cough, ælia, cough'd out all thy fear. 1660C. Ellis Gentile Sinner (1661) 239 It has well nigh cough'd out its very heart. 1797M. Baillie Morb. Anat. (1807) 94 The tubular substances coughed up. †b. fig. With up, † out. To utter; to disclose. Also intr.
1393Langl. P. Pl. C. vii. 163 Al þat ich wiste wickede by eny of our couent, Ich cowede hit vp in oure cloistre. c1480Ragman Roll 183 in Hazl. E.P.P. (1864) 77 Aftir that ye coghyn up a songe. c1485Digby Myst. (1882) iii. 1224 Lett vs syng, I say. Cowff vp þi brest. 1541St. Papers Hen. VIII, I. 711 To make her confesse the thinges testified against her, and allso to cowgh out the rest, not yett discovered.
1896Ade Artie xi. 95 And I cough up to you because I know that you're a good fellow. 1904W. H. Smith Promoters iv. 84 Don't you ever fear that I coughed up anything that would put him on to the true inwardness of what we're working now. 1906E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands x. 133 ‘Now,’ he said, ‘cough it up. Why'd yeh tear them dresses?’ 1931A. Christie Sittaford Myst. xxx. 239 ‘For Heaven's sake, cough it up, Emily,’ he said. ‘I want to get to the telegraph office. Every moment's vital.’ c. With up. To bring out, present, hand over; esp. to pay up (money). Also absol. slang (orig. U.S.).
1894San Francisco Midwinter Appeal 27 Jan. 2/4 Cough up a nickel, read the paper, and get the latest of camp doings. 1904W. H. Smith Promoters vii. 122 I'll cough up the stock and bonds all right. 1909‘O. Henry’ Roads of Destiny xix. 324 Everybody cough up what matches he's got. 1920G. Moore Esther Waters xiv. 119 Now, then, old girl, cough up! I must have a few halfpence. 1923Wodehouse Inimit. Jeeves iv. 46 Thanks to Jeeves I was not going to be called on to cough up several thousand quid. 1929― Summer Lightning vii. 148 Will you or will you not cough up that pig? 1959‘A. Gilbert’ Death takes a Wife xv. 195 He coughed up. Don't ask me why. 4. to cough down: to ‘put down’ or silence (a speaker) by coughing so as to drown his voice.
1823New Monthly Mag. IX. 299/2 If he will make long speeches, he must be coughed down. a1859Macaulay Hist. Eng. V. 44 Who cheer one orator and cough down another. 5. causal. To cause to cough: see quot.
1847Youatt Horse xii. 255 The dealers' habit of coughing the horse, i.e. pressing upon the larynx to make him cough, in order that they may judge of the state of his wind. †6. to cough (any one) a daw, fool, mome: (app.) to make a fool of, befool; also to prove oneself a fool to or for (any one). Obs.[The origin of the expression has not been ascertained: it is even uncertain whether cough is this or the next word.] 1526Skelton Magnyf. 1073 Wylt thou coughe me a dawe for forty pens? Ibid. 1077 A, I trowe, ye shall coughe me a fole. a1553Udall Royster D. iii. ii, If he come abroade he shall cough me a mome. 1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. 48 Else he may chaunce to cough himselfe a dawe for his labour. 1594Lyly Moth. Bombie B ij, I know hee will cough for anger that I yeeld not, but he shall cough mee a foole for his labour. ▪ III. † cough, v.2 Obs. = coff, to purchase, acquire, get.
1550Latimer Last Serm. bef. Edw. VI in 27 Serm. (1562) 121 a, If euery man that hath beguiled the King should make restitucion..it would cough the King xx m. poundes... Alac! alac! make restitucion..ye wyl cough in hel els, that al the Deuils there will laugh at your coughing. |