Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Wheeze

Wheeze , intransitive verb

[Old English whesen, Anglo-Saxon hwēsan (compare Icelandic hvasa to hiss, Swedish hvasa, Danish hvase); akin to Anglo-Saxon hwōsta a cough, Dutch hoest, German husten, Old High German huosto, Icelandic hōsti, Lithuanian kosti to cough, Sanskrit kās. r43. Compare Husky hoarse.]

To breathe hard, and with an audible piping or whistling sound, as persons affected with asthma.
Wheezing lungs. — Shakespeare

Wheeze , noun

1.
A piping or whistling sound caused by difficult respiration.
2.
(Phonetics) An ordinary whisper exaggerated so as to produce the hoarse sound known as the “stage whisper.” It is a forcible whisper with some admixture of tone.