ough

English

Interjection

ough

1. The sound of a grunt or groan or cough.
   • 1856, John Esten Cooke, The Last of the Foresters‎^[1]:

     "Ough! ough! ough!" groaned the old woman; "he wants to go, away from the nest where he was warmed, and nursed, and brought up.

   • 1874, H. S. Caswell, The Path of Duty, and Other Stories‎^[2]:

     We strove to extort from him the cause of this ebullition of passion, but he only shook his head in reply to our questions, and uttered a guttural "ough."

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 200:

     Ough! A door opened, a white-haired secretarial head, but wearing a compassionate expression, appeared, and a skinny forefinger beckoned me into the sanctuary.

See also

• ouch
• oof

Anagrams

• Hugo