Dictionary

churchyard cough en · NOUN

Etymology

Suggesting that the afflicted person will soon pass away and be buried.

Meanings

1. (informal) A severe cough. (condition that causes one to cough, tendency to cough)
   • He was roused from his brief rest by a violent fit of coughing, which seemed to shake the whole system. It was one which in England is so simply, yet so emphatically, denominated a churchyard cough. It was hollow, like the echo of the grave. 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 186:

Forms

Translations (4)

de Friedhofsjodler (a severe cough) · pl kaszel suchy (a severe cough) · ga casacht thollta (a severe cough) · fi kova yskä (a severe cough)