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. 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.
c. 1325. Old Age, 8, in E. E. P. (1862), 149. I clyng i cluche i croke i couwe.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 307. He coȝed ful hyȝe.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIII. 100. Sone þis doctour … Coughed [v.r. couȝwede; C. XVI. 109 kowede] and carped.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Miller’s T., 511 (Harl. MS.). Softe he cowhiþ [v.r. coughed, cogheth, kougheþ, coude] with a semysoun.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 165. Make him cowȝe & spitte out þe quytture.
c. 1490. Promp. Parv., 97 (MS. K). Cowyn or hostyn [H. cowhyn, P. cowghen], tussio, tussito.
1514. Barclay, Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.), 47. Neyther mayst thou rise, cough, spit, or neese.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 100. I neuer heard them coegh nor hem.
1604. Shaks., Oth., IV. ii. 29. Cough, or cry hem; if any body come.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxxiii. Coughing, to conceal from the Provost the excess of his agitation.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 142. The herdsman should be aware of every beast that coughs.
1869. Trollope, He knew, etc. xcii. 513. He fell a-coughing violently.
2. trans. To express or utter by coughing.
c. 1450. Myrc, 891. Koghe thow not thenne thy thonkes.
1784. Cowper, Task, IV. 148. No stationary steeds Cough their own knell.
3. To cough out, up: a. to eject or get rid of by coughing.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. V. 205. Glotoun was a gret cherl … And cowhede vp a cawdel in clementis lappe.
1647. Crashaw, Poems, 125. This last cough, Ælia, cough’d out all thy fear.
1660. C. Ellis, Gentile Sinner, 239. The sad disease of this poor Kingdome, wherein it has well nigh Cough’d out it’s very heart, proceeded from a cold it has taken in the Noblest members of its Body: and that indeed is Atheisme.
1797. M. Baillie, Morb. Anat. (1807), 94. The tubular substances coughed up.
† b. fig. To utter; to disclose. Obs.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. VII. 163. Al þat ich wiste wickede by eny of our couent, Ich cowede hit vp in oure cloistre.
c. 1480. Ragman Roll, 183, in Hazl., E. P. P. (1864), 77. Aftir that ye coghyn up a songe.
c. 1485. Digby Myst. (1882), iii. 1224. Lett vs syng, I say. Cowff vp þi brest.
1541. St. Papers Hen. VIII., I. 711. To make her confesse the thinges testified against her, and allso to cowgh out the rest, not yett discovered.
4. To cough down: to ‘put down’ or silence (a speaker) by coughing so as to drown his voice.
1823. New Monthly Mag., IX. 299/2. If he will make long speeches, he must be coughed down.
a. 1859. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., V. 44. Who cheer one orator and cough down another.
5. causal. To cause to cough: see quot.
1847. Youatt, 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.]
1526. Skelton, Magnyf., 1073. Wylt thou coughe me a dawe for forty pens? Ibid., 1077. A, I trowe, ye shall coughe me a fole.
a. 1553. Udall, Royster D., III. ii. If he come abroade he shall cough me a mome.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. 48. Else he may chaunce to cough himselfe a dawe for his labour.
1594. Lyly, 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.
