wheeze

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

wheeze

/ʍiːz/
/wiːz/

Sounds like wees, we's, Wiis (wine–whine merger) · Rhymes with -iːz

Where it comes from

From Middle English whesen, perhaps from Old Norse hvæsa (“to hiss”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwes- (“to pant”).

verb wheezes · wheezing · wheezed

To breathe hard, and with an audible piping or whistling sound, as persons affected with asthma. If the air smelled even faintly of dog, Lionel coughed, wheezed and sneezed.
slang To convulse with laughter; to become breathless due to intense laughing. Mrs. Hearty began to shake and wheeze with laughter, and Millie stood looking at Bindle.
To make a sound that resembles the sound of human wheezing. "Even the fish know it; they don't rise to the bait any more and the birds are scared - hear how they wheeze and cry as they seek the land."

noun wheezes

A piping or whistling sound caused by difficult respiration.
An ordinary whisper exaggerated so as to produce the hoarse sound known as the "stage whisper"; a forcible whisper with some admixture of tone.
Ireland, UK, informal An ulterior scheme or plan. Didn’t catch me napping that wheeze.
slang Something very humorous or laughable. The new comedy is a wheeze.
Similar: joke
A sound that resembles a human wheezing. At the same time I felt them fall over my brows — time to get a cut — the engine gave a final wheeze and died.

Translations

Every language

verb breathe hard

Español	jadear de manera/modo/forma silbante
中文	喘氣 /喘气 chuǎnqì, 喘息 chuǎnxī
Français	respirer bruyamment, avoir du mal à respirer
Deutsch	keuchen, röcheln, schnaufen, schwer atmen, pfeifend atmen, giemen
Italiano	ansimare, rantolare, anelare, boccheggiare, ansare
Русский	хрипе́ть xripétʹ

noun piping or whistling sound caused by difficult respiration

Español	sibilancia, estertor sibilante
日本語	喘鳴 zeimei
中文	喘息 chuǎnxī
Português	sibilo
Deutsch	Keuchen, Schnaufen, Röcheln
Italiano	rantolo, anelito
Русский	хрип xrip, хрипе́ние xripénije, сипение sipenije

noun exaggerated whisper

Русский	сценический шёпот sceničeskij šópot

Talk about this word

Cite this

MLA

"wheeze." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/wheeze. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

wheeze. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/wheeze

Chicago

"wheeze." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/wheeze.

BibTeX

@misc{wheeze_2026,
  title = {wheeze},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/wheeze},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}