Literary notes about wheeze (AI summary)
The term wheeze is deployed flexibly in literature, serving both a literal and figurative role. At times it denotes a physical sound—a strained, labored sound produced by either a person’s breath or a mechanism, as when an engine "gave out with a wheeze" [1] or a voice betrayed its frailty with "a wheeze" [2]. In other instances it evokes a humorous or ironic tone, as when a character remarks on the absurdity of a situation by labeling it "rather a wheeze" [3] or when an anecdote about a clown’s performance is described as "cracking a wheeze" [4]. Even in descriptive passages, wheeze enriches the texture of the narrative, whether characterizing a mechanical sound in a bustling environment [5] or subtle emotional undercurrents in dialogue [6]. Thus, across its various uses, the word wheeze contributes a layer of vivid, multifaceted meaning to the prose.
- I was awakened by the whistle of the locomotive, and then came the slow wheeze of the cylinder head, and we were off.
— from The Arm-Chair at the Inn by Francis Hopkinson Smith - Her breath comes short, and there is a wheeze in her voice. )
— from The Saxons: A Drama of Christianity in the North by Edwin Davies Schoonmaker - Don't you think it would be rather a wheeze if you were to——" "After what has happened?
— from My Man Jeeves by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse - The joke or anecdote of a clown is called ‘a wheeze,’ and he is said when engaged in that part of his business, to be ‘cracking a wheeze.’
— from Circus Life and Circus Celebrities by Thomas Frost - One night after dinner, just to see what would happen, I said the pedal of the pianoforte seemed to wheeze.
— from The Puppet Show of Memory by Maurice Baring - ‘Ah!’ replied Mr. Lillyvick, with another groan; this time not even disguised by a wheeze.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
