wheeze

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wheeze / (h)wēz/ • v. [intr.] (of a person) breathe with a whistling or rattling sound in the chest, as a result of obstruction in the air passages: the illness often leaves her wheezing. ∎  [tr.] utter with such a sound: he could barely wheeze out his pleas for a handout | [with direct speech] “Don't worry son,” he wheezed. ∎  [intr.] walk or move slowly with such a sound: she wheezed up the hill toward them. ∎  (of a device) make an irregular rattling or spluttering sound: the engine coughed, wheezed, and shrieked into life.• n. [usu. in sing.] a sound of or as of a person wheezing: I talk with a wheeze.DERIVATIVES: wheez·er n.wheez·ing·ly adv.

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