How to Use phlegm in a Sentence
phlegm
noun- He displayed remarkable phlegm in very dangerous conditions.
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You guys, mucus—snot, boogers, slime, nose goblins, phlegm—is the best.
—Sarah Fallon, WIRED, 28 July 2016
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From upstairs there came a grunt, the clearing of phlegm, a cough or two, more grunting, and then a voice that said, Who’s that?
—David Means, The New Yorker, 14 Oct. 2019
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He is called Allan, a name that, when spoken out loud, sort of sounds like an attempt to clear the phlegm from your throat.
—Vulture, 22 July 2023
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Image Chazz Palminteri had phlegm in his throat on a recent Friday.
—New York Times, 25 May 2018
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Nearby, one man cleared his throat and spat an oyster of phlegm onto the sidewalk.
—New York Times, 24 Mar. 2020
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Herbal Products Some herbal products can help clear phlegm out of your airways.
—Amanda Gardner, Health, 3 Sep. 2023
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Symptoms include a bad cough that lasts three weeks or longer, chest pain, or coughing up blood or phlegm, according to the CDC.
—Aria Bendix, NBC News, 2 May 2023
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Wet coughs, also known as productive coughs, are ones that bring up phlegm or mucus.
—Nicole Harris, Parents, 24 Aug. 2023
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Haley said even her cat was coughing up phlegm and acting lethargic.
—Cameron Knight, Cincinnati.com, 6 May 2020
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Between the 2nd and the 18th centuries, medicine defined health depending on four humors: blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile.
—Fay Bound Alberti, Quartz, 25 Nov. 2019
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The theory contends that four fluids — blood, choler (yellow bile), phlegm and black bile — make up the body and must maintain balance for good health.
—Sara Novak, Discover Magazine, 5 Apr. 2023
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There’s a wet, formative gurgle as someone down the block hocks a magnificent wad of phlegm into the street.
—Cassandra Landry, SFChronicle.com, 24 Oct. 2019
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The way the seasons withered crops or provoked tree sap to flow might manifest in the body as yellow bile surging in the summer and cold, wet phlegm dripping in the winter.
—Meg Leja, Smithsonian Magazine, 10 Nov. 2023
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Keegan half expected a sensory flashback to the choking heat and the taste of dusty phlegm and gunpowder residue.
—August Cole, Wired, 5 June 2020
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The practitioner dealt mostly with plants and relied on the ancient system called the Four Humors, which focused on bile, phlegm, and blood.
—Dennis Hohenberger, courant.com, 30 Aug. 2019
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Dozens of times a day, her parents, Rafael and Sonia, use a special machine to suction out saliva and phlegm from their older daughter’s mouth.
—Jocelyn Wiener, The Atlantic, 19 May 2017
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Dozens of times a day, her parents, Rafael and Sonia, use a special machine to suction out saliva and phlegm from their oldest daughter’s mouth.
—Jocelyn Wiener, Kaiser Health News, 22 May 2017
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Victims of black lung often suffer bouts of coughing that produce copious amounts of dark, inky phlegm.
—Maya Wei-Haas, Smithsonian, 16 May 2017
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So if someone’s four humors—black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm—were seen to be out of balance, they’d likely be advised to avoid certain tastes, and eat more of others.
—Aaron Gilbreath, Longreads, 22 July 2017
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Victims of black lung also often suffer bouts of coughing that produce copious amounts of dark, inky phlegm.
—Maya Wei-Haas, Smithsonian, 16 May 2017
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When the air quality is bad enough, even healthy people can suffer wheezing, phlegm, and inflammation.
—Eleanor Cummins, Slate Magazine, 11 Dec. 2017
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Writers including Hippocrates and Galen believed the human body was composed of four humors, or fluids: blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile.
—Lorraine Boissoneault, Smithsonian, 17 May 2017
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Both viruses and bacterial infections can cause phlegm to turn this color.
—Dr. Oz, Good Housekeeping, 17 Jan. 2018
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This causes symptoms like hoarseness, voice changes, a lump sensation in the throat, cough, chronic throat clearing, excessive phlegm or mucus, and sore throat, Osborne said.
—Maggie O'Neill, Health, 16 Nov. 2023
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For sputum samples, a patient coughs to produce phlegm or mucus, which is collected and analyzed, but if those samples don’t have enough material, the lab cannot run the tests.
—Dennis Pillion | Dpillion@al.com, al, 21 Mar. 2020
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For instance, staying hydrated makes your mucus and phlegm thinner and, therefore, easier to clear.
—Korin Miller, SELF, 5 Feb. 2018
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Health officials can use a variety of tests to determine whether someone has contracted the virus, including a nose swab and testing a person’s phlegm.
—Nic Garcia, Dallas News, 4 Feb. 2020
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Technicians can ask a patient to cough up phlegm, known as sputum, but doing so substantially raises the risk of infecting health care workers.
—Lydia Depillis, ProPublica, 10 Apr. 2020
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Symptoms of tuberculosis include chest pain and a persistent cough accompanied by blood or sputum (phlegm from deep inside the lungs), the CDC says.
—Cara Lynn Shultz, Peoplemag, 14 Nov. 2023
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'phlegm.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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