EXPECTORATION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does expectoration mean? 

• EXPECTORATION (noun)
  The noun EXPECTORATION has 2 senses:

1. the process of coughing up and spitting out

2. the act of spitting (forcefully expelling saliva)

  Familiarity information: EXPECTORATION used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXPECTORATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The process of coughing up and spitting out

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Hypernyms ("expectoration" is a kind of...):

activity; bodily function; bodily process; body process (an organic process that takes place in the body)

Derivation:

expectorate (discharge (phlegm or sputum) from the lungs and out of the mouth)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of spitting (forcefully expelling saliva)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

expectoration; spit; spitting

Hypernyms ("expectoration" is a kind of...):

ejection; expulsion; forcing out; projection (the act of expelling or projecting or ejecting)

Derivation:

expectorate (discharge (phlegm or sputum) from the lungs and out of the mouth)

 Context examples 

INS316 appears to improve sputum expectoration mediated through the P2Y2 receptor, a nucleotide receptor expressed in human airway epithelial cells and some other tissues.

(INS316, NCI Thesaurus)

Erdosteine and its metabolites modulate mucus production and viscosity, by which facilitating mucociliary transport and improving expectoration.

(Erdosteine, NCI Thesaurus)

The cilia beat in unison (about 1,000 strokes per minute) and in a wave-like fashion, thereby propelling mucus and entrapped foreign material toward the oropharynx for expectoration or swallowing.

(Ciliated Bronchial Epithelial Cell, NCI Thesaurus)

Battle royal was waged, amid the smoking of many cigarettes and the expectoration of much tobacco-juice, wherein the tramp successfully held his own, even when a socialist workman sneered, There is no god but the Unknowable, and Herbert Spencer is his prophet.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)