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)
“Despite my asbestos gloves,
the cough is filling me with black,
and a red powder seeps through my veins....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Thou didst drink
The stale of horses and the gilded puddle
That beasts would cough at.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)