Wheeze
WordNet
noun
(1) Breathing with a husky or whistling sound
(2) (Briticism) a clever or amusing scheme or trick
"A clever wheeze probably succeeded in neutralizing the German espionage threat"
verb
(3) Breathe with difficulty
WiktionaryText
Etymology
From , perhaps from , ultimately from .
Noun
- A piping or whistling sound caused by difficult respiration.
- An ordinary whisper exaggerated so as to produce the hoarse sound known as the "stage whisper"; a forcible whisper with some admixture of tone.
- A scheme or plan.
- Something very humorous or laughable.
- The new comedy is a wheeze.
- You think you're going to win? That's a real wheeze!
Verb
- To breathe hard, and with an audible piping or whistling sound, as persons affected with asthma.
- 2001, Joyce Carol Oates, Middle Age: A Romance (Fourth Estate, paperback edition, 443)
- If the air smelled even faintly of dog, Lionel coughed, wheezed and sneezed.
- 2001, Joyce Carol Oates, Middle Age: A Romance (Fourth Estate, paperback edition, 443)