I. wheeze 1 /wiːz/ BrE AmE verb [intransitive]
[ Date: 1400-1500 ; Origin: Probably from a Scandinavian language ]
to breathe with difficulty, making a noise in your throat and chest
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THESAURUS
▪ breathe [intransitive and transitive] to take air into your lungs and send it out again:
Mary knew he was asleep because he was breathing deeply.
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He breathed the clear spring air.
▪ sigh to breathe out slowly and make a noise that shows you are disappointed, tired, ↑ relieved etc:
She just sighed and shook her head.
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‘Never mind,’ he sighed. ‘I’m sure there’ll be other opportunities.’
▪ pant to breathe quickly and noisily through your mouth, because you have been using a lot of effort:
They were panting by the time they got to the finish line.
▪ gasp to breathe very quickly and deeply and with difficulty:
Her eyes were wide, and she was gasping for breath.
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‘Do you think you can walk?’ ‘I’ll try to,’ he gasped.
▪ snore to breathe noisily while you are sleeping:
I couldn’t sleep because my husband was snoring.
▪ wheeze to breathe with difficulty, making a noise in your throat and chest, because you are ill:
His asthma was making him wheeze.
▪ be out of breath to be unable to breathe easily, especially because you have been running or doing other exercise:
I was out of breath by the time we reached the top of the hill.
▪ be short of breath to be unable to breathe easily, especially because you are unhealthy:
Because she was so overweight, she was often short of breath.
II. wheeze 2 BrE AmE noun [countable]
1 . the act or sound of wheezing
2 . British English old-fashioned a clever and amusing idea or plan
3 . American English an old joke that no one thinks is funny now