Wheezy describes breathing that makes a rough, whistling, rattling sound because air is having trouble getting through your chest or throat. A person can be wheezy — an asthmatic child after running, an old man with bad lungs, anyone in the last days of a bad cold. Their breath is not just loud; it has a thin high whistle or a wet rattle in it, and you can usually hear it from across the room. You can also call the breathing itself wheezy, or the voice, or the cough: 'a wheezy little laugh', 'a wheezy chest'. It is an everyday word, not a medical one — a doctor writes 'wheezing' in your notes, but your mother says 'you sound wheezy, sit down'. People stretch it, gently and often fondly, to old machines that ought to sound smooth and don't: a wheezy old air conditioner, a wheezy motorbike, a wheezy accordion. That stretch is friendly, almost affectionate, because the machine sounds like a tired old body. Used of a person it sits somewhere between concern and light teasing, depending on your face when you say it — it is not an insult, but it does say clearly that someone is not in good shape at that moment.

呼吸有咻咻聲的、氣喘吁吁的；（胸腔）有喘鳴聲。醫學上那個聲音叫「喘鳴」，但日常台灣人會說「呼吸會咻咻叫」「胸口有咻咻聲」。注意不要直接想成「喘」——單純跑完步喘不過氣是 out of breath，wheezy 一定要有那個帶哨音或帶痰的雜音。用在老機器上時是「老舊嘎嘎作響的」，語氣是好笑而不是嫌棄。