How to use cough in a sentence
40 example sentences · verb, noun, interjection
Cough means sometimes followed by up: to force (something) out of the lungs or throat by pushing air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound), and out through the mouth. Example: “Sometimes she coughed up blood.”
Examples of cough by meaning
verbSometimes followed by up: to force (something) out of the lungs or throat by pushing air from the lungs through the...
- Sometimes she coughed up blood.
- Jeeves coughed one soft, low, gentle cough like a sheep with a blade of grass stuck in its throat, and then stood gazing serenely at the landscape.1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “The Great Sermon Handicap”, in The Inimitable Jeeves, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]...
verbTo cause (oneself or something) to be in a certain condition in the manner described in etymology 1 sense 1.1.
- He almost coughed himself into a fit.
verbChiefly followed by up: to give up or hand over (something); especially, to pay up (money).
- Everybody cough up what matches he's got.1909 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Whistling Dick’s Christmas Stocking”, in Roads of Destiny, Garden City, N.Y....
- Thanks to Jeeves I was not going to be called on to cough up several thousand quid.1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, The Inimitable Jeeves, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC, page 40
verbTo push air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound) and out through the mouth, usually to...
- I breathed in a lungful of smoke by mistake, and started to cough.
- "But it is unfortunate—you find me at the moment—" and he stopped short and coughed.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page...
- “Does Kipper know of this?“ I said, when I had finished coughing.1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC
verbTo make a noise like a cough.
- The engine coughed and sputtered.
nounA sudden, often involuntary expulsion of air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound), and...
- Behind me, I heard a distinct, dry cough.
nounA bout of repeated coughing (verb etymology 1 sense 2.1); also, a medical condition that causes one to cough.
- Sorry, I can’t come to work today—I’ve got a nasty cough.
More sentences with cough
- Do you think he'll be able to cough up the three grand by Tuesday?From the entry cough up
- That team had the game won, but they coughed it up in the end.From the entry cough up
- A hacking cough. A hacking laugh. A hacking breath. A hacking cry.From the entry hacking
- He coughed violently and spat out the catarrh irritating his throat.From the entry catarrh
- With a scratchy throat and a cough, it feels like I'm coming down with a cold.From the entry come down with
- She coughed as she exhaled. Sixties weed had been nowhere near this strong.From the entry sixties
- He slept fitfully, plagued by bad dreams and a persistent cough.From the entry fitfully
- Jim took such a big bong hit that he coughed for a whole minute.From the entry bong hit
- I started smoking last year and have been coughing ever since.From the entry ever since
- I have had this terrible cough ever since I started smoking.From the entry ever since
- The doctor told that his coughing and sneezing was the symptom of standing for too long in the rain.From the entry symptom
- That cough of his is really getting on my nerves.From the entry his
- She has had a persistent cough for weeks.From the entry persistent
- Hot blackcurrant juice mixed with honey may suppress cough.From the entry suppress
- The car engine coughed temperamentally before roaring into life.From the entry temperamentally
- His incessant coughing made his voice sound raspy.From the entry raspy
- The rumor is going around that Mr. X and Ms. Y are having an affair. There's a cough going around.From the entry go around
- She spoke hoarsely because of her cough.From the entry hoarsely
- We heard snifflings and a cough from behind the hedge.From the entry sniffling
- His phlegmy cough disgusted everybody on the train.From the entry phlegmy
- You should cover your mouth when you cough so you don't spray spittle all over an unlucky coughee.From the entry coughee
- Eventually the machine coughed out the money.From the entry cough out
- Eventually, he'll cough over the money he owes.From the entry cough over
- This medicine is for your cough.From the entry for
- We told her to give her daughter ten mils of cough syrup and to call us back if the cough gets worse.From the entry mil
- She took a big drink of milk and it went down the wrong way. She was coughing for the next two minutes.From the entry go down the wrong way
- A hacking cough is most commonly observed in chronic catarrh of the upper air-passages, in pharyngitis and laryngitis, and especially in beginning pulmonary tuberculosis; hence its importance.From the entry hacking cough
- The guard at the door coughed up blood, and died instantly.2023 October 12, HarryBlank, “Fire in the Hole”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 22 May 2024. From the entry lever
- Luthan chokes again, coughing up more blood, and for the first time Oriana sees the unlight.2020, A.F.E. Smith, Dawn Rising, IronWright Books, →ISBN. From the entry unlight
Meaning of cough
- verb Sometimes followed by up: to force (something) out of the lungs or throat by pushing air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound), and out through the mouth.
- verb To cause (oneself or something) to be in a certain condition in the manner described in etymology 1 sense 1.1.
- verb To express (words, etc.) in the manner described in etymology 1 sense 1.1.
Questions about cough in a sentence
- How do you use cough in a sentence?
- Cough is used as a verb, noun and interjection. For example: “Sometimes she coughed up blood.”
- What is a short sentence with cough?
- “Sometimes she coughed up blood.”
- What does cough mean?
- Cough means sometimes followed by up: to force (something) out of the lungs or throat by pushing air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound), and out through the mouth.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cough (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use cough in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/cough. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.