expectorate
verb [intransitive] (formal)Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they expectorate | |
| he / she / it expectorates | |
| past simple expectorated | |
| past participle expectorated | |
| -ing form expectorating |
to cough and make phlegm (= a thick substance) come up from your lungs into your mouth so you can spit it out 咳出（痰） Word Originearly 17th cent. (in the sense ‘enable sputum to be coughed up’, referring to medicine): from Latin expectorat- ‘expelled from the chest’, from the verb expectorare, from ex- ‘out’ + pectus, pector- ‘breast’.