From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishwheezewheeze1 /wiːz/ verb [intransitive] MIBREATHEto breathe with difficulty, making a noise in your throat and chest► see thesaurus at breathe→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
wheeze• Thought of fat Goldberg shuffling round the glass in the little room, rubbing his unshaven cheeks, wheezing.• People with asthma may start to wheeze.• He was stocky and wheezed a little.• After a 13-month stint, the wheezing and frail Chernenko died in March 1985 at age 73.• There was fluid in my lungs, rattling and wheezing at every breath.• I wheezed at them, and they nodded.• After all, just fifteen years ago, most analysts thought Disney was a tired, wheezing firm.• The ragged figure shook with fury, his breath wheezing in and out of his tiny frame.• The scarves sag, the whistles wheeze, one last outsize banana droops.• When she coughed she made a terrible wheezing sound.• His asthma was acting up and he wheezed throughout the show.wheezewheeze2 noun [countable] 1 MIBREATHEthe act or sound of wheezing2 British English old-fashionedPLAN a clever and amusing idea or plan3 American English an old joke that no one thinks is funny nowExamples from the Corpus
wheeze• He reminded Harry, in his build, expression and asthmatic wheeze, of a bulldog peering ill-humouredly from his kennel.• Juvenile has a shrill persistent wheeze.• The wheeze was simple: to change their shape from square to round.• We hope that woodworkers of all types will send in their wheezes, as readers are always asking for more tips.Origin wheeze1 (1400-1500) Probably from a Scandinavian language 