coughed
- 1Simple past and past participle of cough.
She coughed several times before clearing her throat to speak.
The miners coughed up gritty dust after their long shift underground.
Note
A regular past form: one spelling covers both the simple past (she coughed) and the participle after have (she has coughed). Because cough can also take an object, the participle can turn passive (blood was coughed up), and up often comes along. The same pattern carries the slang sense of handing something over, especially money, and the figurative sense of confessing: the fee was finally coughed up.
He has coughed all night and still can't sleep.
After weeks of excuses, the rent was finally coughed up.
coughed is a form of cough
cough, verb: To expel air sharply from the lungs through the glottis, producing a short, explosive sound, usually to clear something irritating the airway. Full entry
- Spelling
- cough → coughed: add -ed
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /t/.
Use it in a sentence
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