wheeze

Universal Words verb, noun verb to breathe noisily and with difficulty: [V] He was coughing and wheezing all night. * [Vspeech] 'I have a chest infection,' she wheezed. noun [usuallysing.] 1 the high whistling sound that your chest makes when you cannot breathe easily 2 (old-fashioned, BrE, informal) a clever trick or plan: He came up with a clever wheeze.