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   Wheeze

   /(h)wēz/

   

   verb

   • 1. (of a person) breathe with a whistling or rattling sound in the chest, as a result of obstruction in the air passages: "the illness often leaves her wheezing"
   • ▪ utter with a wheezing sound: "he could barely wheeze out his pleas for a handout"
   • ▪ walk or move slowly with a wheezing sound: "she wheezed up the hill toward them"
   • ▪ (of a device) make an irregular rattling or spluttering sound: "the engine coughed, wheezed, and shrieked into life"

   noun

   • 1. a sound of or as of a person wheezing: "I talk with a wheeze" Similar constricted breathinggaspwhistlehissraspcroakpantcough
   • 2. an old joke, story, aphorism, act, or routine: informal US "the old wheeze about the diner complaining about the fly in his soup"
   • ▪ a clever or amusing scheme, idea, or trick: informal British "a new wheeze to help farmers" Similar schemeplanideatacticmovestratagemploygambitdevicemaneuvercontrivanceexpedienttrickdodgesubterfugegamewilerusejokeprankstuntarchaic:shift

   Word Origin late Middle English: probably from Old Norse hvæsa ‘to hiss’.

   Derivatives

   • 1. wheezer noun

   Scrabble Points: 21

   • W

     4

   • H

     4

   • E

     1

   • E

     1

   • Z

     10

   • E

     1

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