coughing
English
[edit]Verb
[edit]coughing
- present participle and gerund of cough
Noun
[edit]coughing (plural coughings)
- A cough; the act of coughing.
- 1855, Anna Mary Howitt, A school of life, page 63:
- The good signor's little address was received in a variety of ways: there were titterings and coughings, and there were also a few instances of noble and generous response to poor Leonard's action […]
- 1894, Harold Frederic, “My Aunt Susan”, in Marsena and Other Stories of the Wartime, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 200:
- "I've been directed here to find Miss Susan Pike," the man outside explained, between fresh coughings. ¶ "Well, then, mog your boots out of this as quick as ever you can!" my Aunt replied, with great promptitude. "You won't find her here!"
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 26:
- One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.” He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis and another boy interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.
- 2011, John O'Loughlin, Two Sides of the Same Coin:
- He would also have been exposed to the coughings and shufflings, comings and goings, questions and answers, wailings and slammings, snivellings and sneezings, etc., which figured so prominently in the reference room […]