Definition of "wheeze" []

• To breathe with difficulty, producing a hoarse whistling sound. (verb-intransitive)
• To make a sound resembling laborious breathing. (verb-intransitive)
• To produce or utter with a hoarse whistling sound: The old locomotive wheezed steam. (verb-transitive)
• A wheezing sound. (noun)
• Informal An old joke. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "One short-term wheeze is that the day after the May elections and referendum – whoever has won – Cameron and Nick Clegg will do a joint press conference renewing their rose-garden vows."
• "The night was a wonder of shadowless trees, a giant thrall — a wheeze from the dome where the sky now was, then nothing at all."
• "The latest wheeze is to tax employees if their employer provides parking spaces."