1. cough or spit out (phlegm) from the throat or lungs:"she was expectorating dirty coloured sputum"
Word Originearly 17th century (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’.