1. To breathe with difficulty and noisily. 2. A whistling, squeaking, musical, or puffing sound made on exhalation by air passing through the fauces, glottis, or narrowed tracheobronchial airways. [A.S. hwesan]
- asthmatoid w. a puffing or musical sound heard on exhalation in front of the patient's open mouth in a case of foreign body in the trachea or a bronchus.
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wheeze 'hwēz, 'wēz vi, wheezed; wheez·ing to breathe with difficulty usu. with a whistling sound
wheeze n a sibilant whistling sound caused by difficult or obstructed respiration
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n.
an abnormal high-pitched (sibilant) or low-pitched sound heard - either by the unaided human ear or through the stethoscope - mainly during expiration. Wheezes occur as a result of narrowing of the airways, such as results from bronchospasm or increased secretion and retention of sputum; they are commonly heard in patients with asthma or chronic bronchitis.
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(hwēz) 1. a continuous sound (q.v.) consisting of a whistling noise with a high pitch, thought to be generated by gas flowing through narrowed airways. Called also sibilant or whistling rhonchus. 2. to breathe making such a high-pitched sound.Medical dictionary. 2011.