• (RP) IPA: /kɒf/
• (Conservative RP) IPA: /kɔːf/
• (America) enPR: kôf, IPA: /kɔf/
• (cot-caught) enPR: kŏf, IPA: /kɑf/

From Middle English coughen, coghen [and other forms], from Old English *cohhian (compare Old English cohhetan), from Proto-West Germanic *kuh-, ultimately of onomatopoeic origin.

• Middle Dutch cuchen (modern Dutch kuchen; nds-de kuchen)
• Middle High German kûchen, kîchen (modern German keichen, keuchen)
• Spanish cof
• Western Frisian kiche, kochelje

cough (coughs, present participle coughing; simple past and past participle coughed)

1. (transitive, medical sign)
   1. 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.

      Sometimes she coughed up blood.

      • 1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “The Great Sermon Handicap”, in The Inimitable Jeeves, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1979, →ISBN, page 139 ↗:

        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.

   2. To cause (oneself or something) to be in a certain condition in the manner described in .

      He almost coughed himself into a fit.

   3. To express (words, etc.) in the manner described in .
      • 1785, William Cowper, “Book IV. The Winter Evening.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson;  […], →OCLC ↗, pages 144–145 ↗:

        No ſtationary ſteeds / Cough their ovvn knell, vvhile heedleſs of the ſound / The ſilent circle fan themſelves, and quake.

   4. (figurative)
      1. To surrender (information); to confess.
      2. (originally, US, slang) Chiefly followed by up: to give up or hand over (something); especially, to pay up (money).
         • 1909 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Whistling Dick’s Christmas Stocking”, in Roads of Destiny, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC ↗, page 324 ↗:

           By the time you get back the men will all be striking out for the fire, and we'll break for the house and collar the dollars. Everybody cough up what matches he's got.

         • 1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “Pearls Mean Tears”, in The Inimitable Jeeves, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1979, →ISBN, page 40 ↗:

           Thanks to Jeeves I was not going to be called on to cough up several thousand quid.

         • 1929 March–August, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “A Job for Percy Pilbeam”, in Summer Lightning, 1st UK edition, London: Herbert Jenkins […], published 19 July 1929, →OCLC ↗, section II, page 148 ↗:

           "Parsloe, will you or will you not cough up that pig?" / "I have not got your pig."

2. (intransitive)
   1. To push air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound) and out through the mouth, usually to expel something blocking or irritating the airway.

      I breathed in a lungful of smoke by mistake, and started to cough.

      • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene ii], page 70 ↗:

        Leave procreants alone, and ſhut the dore, / Coffe, or cry hem, if any body come, […]

      • 1828 May 14, [Walter Scott], chapter X, in Chronicles of the Canongate. Second Series. […] (The Fair Maid of Perth), volume III, Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC ↗, page 259 ↗:

        "Did your lordship's servant see Simon Glover and his daughter?" said Henry, struggling for breath, and coughing, to conceal from the Provost the excess of his agitation.

      • 1869 May, Anthony Trollope, “Trevelyan Discourses on Life”, in He Knew He Was Right, volume II, London: Strahan and Company, […], →OCLC ↗, page 336 ↗:

        After this he fell a-coughing violently, and Stanbury thought it better to leave him.

      • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗, page 246 ↗:

        "But it is unfortunate—you find me at the moment—" and he stopped short and coughed.

      • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC ↗:

        I drew a deep breath, and a moment later wished I hadn't, because I drew it while drinking the remains of my gin and tonic. “Does Kipper know of this?“ I said, when I had finished coughing.

   2. To make a noise like a cough.

      The engine coughed and sputtered.

      • 1884 December 9, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XIX, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer's Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC ↗, pages 169–170 ↗:

        Wake up, by-and-by, and look to see what done it, and maybe see a steamboat, coughing along up stream, so far off towards the other side you couldn't tell nothing about her only whether she was stern-wheel or side-wheel; then for about an hour there wouldn't be nothing to hear nor nothing to see—just solid lonesomeness.

   3. (originally, US, slang) To surrender information; to confess, to spill the beans.

• French: tousser
• German: husten
• Italian: tossire
• Portuguese: tossir
• Russian: ка́шлять
• Spanish: toser

• French: tousser
• German: husten
• Italian: tossire
• Portuguese: tossir
• Russian: ка́шлять
• Spanish: toser

The noun is derived from Middle English cough [and other forms], from coughen: see etymology 1.

The interjection is probably derived from the noun.

cough (plural coughs)

1. A sudden, often involuntary expulsion of air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound), and out through the mouth.

   Behind me, I heard a distinct, dry cough.

   • 1640, John Parkinson, “Cyperus dulcis rotundus esculentus, Trasi dulce vocatus. The Most Delicate Sweet Cyperus, or Rush Nut.”, in Theatrum Botanicum: The Theater of Plants. Or, An Herball of a Large Extent: […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, →OCLC ↗, page 148 ↗:

     [I]t conduceth helpe to the crudities, humidities, and vvindineſſe of the ſtomacke and belly, and to helpe the ſhortneſſe of breath and coughes: […]

   • 1709, Alexander Pope, “January and May; or, The Merchant's Tale, from Chaucer”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC ↗, page 223 ↗:

     The lumpiſh husband ſnoar'd avvay the night, / Till coughs avvak'd him near the morning light.

   • 1828 May 14, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in Chronicles of the Canongate. Second Series. […] (The Fair Maid of Perth), volume III, Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC ↗, page 12 ↗:

     Dwining ventured to give a low cough once or twice, by way of signal; […]

   • 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.

     An attributive use.

   • 1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “The Great Sermon Handicap”, in The Inimitable Jeeves, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1979, →ISBN, page 139 ↗:

     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.

2. A bout of repeated coughing (verb ); also, a medical condition that causes one to cough.

   (medical condition) Synonyms: tussis

   whooping cough

   Sorry, I can’t come to work today—I’ve got a nasty cough.

   • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene ii] ↗:

     [John] Fal[staff]. VVhat diſeaſe haſt thou? / [Peter] Bul[lcaff]. A horſon cold ſir, a cough ſir, vvhich I cought vvith ringing in the Kings affaires vpon his coronation day ſir.

   • 1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “Foreshadowings”, in Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume II, Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC ↗, page 81 ↗:

     Cough! you don't need to tell me about a cough. I've always been subject to a cough, all my days. […] O! Eva's cough is not anything.

3. (figurative) A noise or sound like a cough ().

• French: toux
• German: Husten
• Italian: tosse, colpo di tosse
• Portuguese: tosse
• Russian: ка́шель
• Spanish: tos

• French: toux
• German: Husten
• Italian: tosse
• Portuguese: tosse
• Russian: ка́шель
• Spanish: tos

1. Used to represent the sound of a cough (noun sense 1), especially when focusing attention on a following utterance, often an attribution of blame or a euphemism: ahem.

   He was—cough—indisposed.