Meaning of Wheeze | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A piping or whistling sound caused by difficult respiration.
2. An ordinary whisper exaggerated so as to produce the hoarse sound known as the "stage whisper"; a forcible whisper with some admixture of tone.
3. An ulterior scheme or plan.
   British, Ireland, informal
4. Something very humorous or laughable.
   slang
5. A sound that resembles a human wheezing.

Equivalents

Examples

“Didn’t catch me napping that wheeze.”

“The main point of fuel duty, though, is as a fiscal wheeze: it made up 5% of the tax take in 2010.”

“The Constitution cult in the US—deliberately stoked in the early twentieth century in a part as a bulwark against socialism—is a nastily brilliant wheeze by capitalism's apologists.”

“The new comedy is a wheeze.”

“You think you're going to win? That's a real wheeze!”

“At the same time I felt them fall over my brows — time to get a cut — the engine gave a final wheeze and died.”

CEFR level