cough
n. countablen. a sudden, loud noise you make when air comes out of your throat. It usually happens when you are sick or have something stuck in your throat.
n. a sudden, forceful expulsion of air from the lungs that is often involuntary. It serves as a protective reflex to clear the airways of irritants, secretions, or foreign objects.
He has a dry cough that won't go away.
The teacher paused her lecture until the student's loud cough subsided and the room was quiet again.
While a persistent cough is frequently a symptom of a minor viral infection, it can occasionally indicate a more serious underlying respiratory condition that requires clinical intervention.
From Middle English coughen, coghen (“to cough; to vomit”) [and other forms], from Old English cohhian (compare Old English cohhetan (“to bluster; to riot; to cough (?)”)), from Proto-West Germanic kuh- (“to cough”), ultimately of onomatopoeic origin. Cognates * Middle Dutch cuchen (“to cough”) (modern Dutch kuchen (“to cough”); German Low German kuchen (“to cough”)) * Middle High German kûchen (“to breathe (on); to exhale”), kîchen (“to breathe with difficulty”) (modern German keichen, keuchen (“to breathe with difficulty; to gasp, pant”)) * Spanish cof (“coughing sound”) * West Frisian kiche (“to cough”), kochelje (“to cough persistently”)
The noun is derived from Middle English cough (“a cough; illness causing coughing”) [and other forms], from coughen (verb): see etymology 1. The interjection is probably derived from the noun.
Commonly used with the verb 'have' or 'give'.