Wheeze

/ʍiːz/ · verb

Meaning

To breathe hard, and with an audible piping or whistling sound, as persons affected with asthma..

Definitions by Sense

1. To breathe hard, and with an audible piping or whistling sound, as persons affected with asthma.
2. (slang) To convulse with laughter; to become breathless due to intense laughing.
3. To make a sound that resembles the sound of human wheezing.
4. A piping or whistling sound caused by difficult respiration.
5. An ordinary whisper exaggerated so as to produce the hoarse sound known as the "stage whisper"; a forcible whisper with some admixture of tone.
6. (British, Ireland, informal) An ulterior scheme or plan.
7. (slang) Something very humorous or laughable.
8. A sound that resembles a human wheezing.

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."

One boy in a black tuxedo and red shoes plays a wheezing accordion like a roadside undertaker.

Didn’t catch me napping that wheeze.

Synonyms for wheeze

Antonyms for wheeze

Related Words

Word Forms

• wheezes
• wheezing
• wheezed

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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