wheeze

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
wheeze/wiːz/

▶verb breathe with a whistling or rattling sound in the chest, as a result of obstruction in the air passages.

■ (of a device) make an irregular rattling or spluttering sound.

▶noun

• 1 a sound of a person wheezing.

• 2 Brit. informal a clever or amusing scheme or trick.

– derivatives
wheezer noun,
wheezing adjective,
wheezingly adverb.

– origin ME: prob. from ON hvæsa ‘to hiss’.