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phlegmy

[flem-ee]
adjective, phlegm·i·er, phlegm·i·est.
  1. of, relating to, or characterized by phlegm.
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Origin of phlegmy

First recorded in 1540–50; phlegm + -y1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for phlegmy

Historical Examples of phlegmy

  • Phlegmy coughs shook the air of the bookshop, bulging out the dingy curtains.

    Ulysses

    James Joyce

  • A phlegmy cough, my dear lawyer; a complaint which is really most ridiculously absurd!

  • Can you imagine that a man could stand calmly and hear himself charged with having a phlegmy cough?

  • Gentlemen, I not only declare that my honourable opponent had not a phlegmy cough, but I trust he never will have one.'

  • Either he might have said nothing, or contented himself with declaring that I had not the phlegmy cough.

Word Origin and History for phlegmy

adj.

1540s, from phlegm + -y (2).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper