wheeze

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

• enPR: wēz, IPA^(key): /ʍiːz/, /wiːz/
• Rhymes: -iːz

• Homophones: wees, Wiis (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

wheeze (plural wheezes)

1. A piping or whistling sound caused by difficult respiration.
2. An ordinary whisper exaggerated so as to produce the hoarse sound known as the "stage whisper"; a forcible whisper with some admixture of tone.
3. (Britain, slang) An ulterior scheme or plan
   • 2011 "Road rage; High petrol prices hurt, but will not throttle the economy", The Economist 19 November 2011:

     The main point of fuel duty, though, is as a fiscal wheeze: it made up 5% of the tax take in 2010.

4. (slang) Something very humorous or laughable.

   The new comedy is a wheeze.

   You think you're going to win? That's a real wheeze!

• See also Thesaurus:joke

wheeze (third-person singular simple present wheezes, present participle wheezing, simple past and past participle wheezed)

1. To breathe hard, and with an audible piping or whistling sound, as persons affected with asthma.
   • 2001, Joyce Carol Oates, Middle Age: A Romance (Fourth Estate, paperback edition, 443)

     If the air smelled even faintly of dog, Lionel coughed, wheezed and sneezed.