Cough

Cough

A cough ( pronunciation Latin: tussis), is a sudden and often repetitively occurring reflex which helps to clear the large breathing passages from secretions, irritants, foreign particles and microbes. The cough reflex consists of three phases: an inhalation, a forced exhalation against a closed glottis, and a violent release of air from the lungs following opening of the glottis, usually accompanied by a distinctive sound. Coughing can happen voluntarily as well as involuntarily.

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Famous quotes containing the word cough:

    You have to stand every day three or four hours of visitors. Nine-tenths of them want something they ought not to have. If you keep dead-still they will run down in three or four minutes. If you even cough or smile they will start up all over again.
    Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)

    All, men my madmen, the unwholesome wind
    With whistler’s cough contages, time on track
    Shapes in a cinder death; love for his trick,
    Happy Cadaver’s hunger as you take
    The kissproof world.
    Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)

    Thou didst drink
    The stale of horses and the gilded puddle
    That beasts would cough at.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)