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Definition of wheeze : 1. A piping or whistling sound caused by difficult respiration.
2. 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.
3. To breathe hard, and with an audible piping or whistling sound, as persons affected with asthma.
4. To show mirth, satisfaction, or derision, by peculiar movement of the muscles of the face, particularly of the mouth, causing a lighting up of the face and eyes, and usually accompanied by the emission of explosive or chuckling sounds from the chest and throat; to indulge in laughter.

Synonyms:

creaking, chorus, phrase, inhale, beep, mouth, gulp, creak, heave, keen, declaim, gag, yak, chime, catch your breath, jape, pant, peep, frame, mewl, declare, gasp, pop, choke, jest, crack, fight for breath, puff, click, hyperventilate, laugh, gasp out, joke, plop, blow, bleep, chirp, chink, clink, breathe, put, sigh

sneeze, sibilate, whistle, whir, sputter, fizzle, snore, buzz, sizzle, sniffle, whoosh, snuffle, snort, hiss, zip, whisper, whiz, lisp

rhonchus, sibilation

Usage examples:

• He admitted there wasn't, but said it was a jolly wheeze just the same. - "Somewhere in Red Gap", Harry Leon Wilson.
• I gazed on the procession till it was out of sight; and when the last wheeze of the clarionet died upon my ear, I could not help thinking how happy were they who were thus to dwell together in the peaceful bosom of their native village, far from the gilded misery and the pestilential vices of the town. - "The Portland Sketch Book", Various.
• Lum's great forearm eased, the bellows flattened with a long, slow wheeze, and he went to the door and looked after her. - "In Happy Valley", John Fox.